In back-to-back court appearances, Paul Manafort, Jr, former Trump campaign chairman, was sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison. Judge T.S. Ellis’ was the sentencing judge in the Eastern District of Virginia on March 7, 2019. Less than a week later, District Judge Amy Berman Jackson presided in a separate sentencing of Manafort in the District of Columbia. The two judges seemed to approach a similar task in somewhat different ways. Judge Ellis’ excessively lenient sentence of 47 months highlights the privilege enjoyed by rich white men in America. Never mind how Manafort became rich. Judge Jackson’s sentence of 43 months seemed to represent greater balance. But make no mistake, the Manafort sentences illustrates the lack of true balance in the criminal justice.
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