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Drinking culture and American kids

On America's college campuses, there are epidemics we talk about and those we don't. When sexual assaults or fraternity hazing deaths make headlines, court cases follow and new rules are enacted, but less attention is paid to an underlying issue – binge drinking culture. CBSN Originals explores how drinking to excess is not only considered normal, but cool, and how for many young people "blacking out" is less a rarity than an every weekend occurrence – with grave consequences.</s>Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort sentenced to 47 months for tax and bank fraud

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort sentenced to 47 months for tax and bank fraud.</s>A federal judge has sentenced former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison on tax and bank-fraud charges for hiding millions in income derived from advising Ukraine lawmakers.

Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence Thursday, capping the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Addressing the courtroom, Ellis called Mueller’s recommended sentence range of 19-to-24 years for Manafort “excessive.” The judge also noted that the Trump campaign official was not sentenced for matters related to Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

In a brief statement ahead of his sentencing, Manafort asked the judge for compassion, saying that feeling “humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.” The longtime lobbyist said he has had time to reflect on his actions during months of solitary confinement and does not recognize the person he has been made out to be in the media. Manafort also said he hopes to have an opportunity “to show the world who I know I really am.”

“What you saw today is the same thing that we had said from day one: There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia,” Manafort attorney Kevin Downing told reporters after the sentencing.

Last year, a jury in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted Manafort on eight felonies related to tax and bank fraud charges for hiding foreign income from his work in Ukraine from the IRS and later inflating his income on bank loan applications. Prosecutors have said the work in Ukraine was on behalf of politicians who were closely aligned with Russia, though Manafort has insisted his work helped those politicians distance themselves from Russia and align with the West.

After his conviction, Manafort pleaded guilty to separate charges in the District of Columbia related to illegal lobbying. He faces up to five years in prison on each of two counts to which he pleaded guilty. In the District case, prosecutors said Manafort has failed to live up to the terms of his plea bargain by providing false information to investigators in interviews.

In the Virginia case, neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys have recommended a specific term to the judge in their sentencing memoranda.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, a significant break from sentencing guidelines that called for a 20-year prison term.

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, showed no visible reaction as he heard the 47-month sentence.

The sentence caps the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. It was not related to Manafort’s role in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Before Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence, Manafort told him that “saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement.” But he offered no explicit apology, something Ellis noted before issuing his sentence.

Manafort’s lawyers argued that their client had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case, and cited numerous past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions from the IRS and served less than a year in prison.

Prosecutors said Manafort’s conduct was egregious, but Ellis ultimately agreed more with defense attorneys. “These guidelines are quite high,” Ellis said.

A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the IRS millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Manafort still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty in a separate case connected to illegal lobbying.</s>Paul Manafort, the longtime political operative who served as chairman of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, is expected to be sentenced Thursday in Virginia federal court on tax and bank fraud charges.

Federal guidelines call for Manafort, 69, to spend 19-and-a-half to 24 years in prison, though the judge is free to impose a sentence below that range. In a sentencing memo to Judge T.S. Ellis last month, prosecutors called the charges against Manafort "serious, longstanding, and bold," adding that the offenses were so serious that "the government has not located a comparable case with the unique array of crimes and aggravating factors."

"Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,” prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller wrote in the memo. “The sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes.”

In August, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted Manafort on five counts of tax fraud, one count of failure to file a report of foreign bank and financial accounts and two counts of bank fraud. The judge, however, declared a mistrial on the 10 other charges he faced.

None of the charges involved Manafort's work on the Trump campaign in 2016. Though the trial was the first public test of Mueller's probe, the charges had nothing to do with Mueller's main task as special counsel — to discover whether anyone in the U.S. was helping Russia interfere in the election.

Prosecutors built a case that Manafort for years hid millions from U.S. tax authorities in overseas accounts, spending the money to maintain a lavish lifestyle and lying to banks to generate more cash.

Manafort also faces a second sentencing hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., on March 13.

The judge in that case, Amy Berman Jackson, must decide if Manafort, who turns 70 in April, will serve the two sentences at the same time or whether they must be served consecutively.

In that case, he pleaded guilty in September to two new counts, admitted his guilt to the 10 outstanding counts the Virginia trial and agreed to cooperate with special counsel prosecutors in a deal that would have made him eligible for a lighter sentence. He also agreed to forfeit multiple bank accounts and properties, including his apartment in Trump Tower. However, Judge Jackson since agreed with investigators' assessment that Manafort lied to them in order to protect a Russian conspirator.

As such, the cooperation deal is off, and he could spend the rest of his life in prison.</s>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced Thursday to nearly four years in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines.

Manafort, sitting in a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, had no visible reaction as he heard the 47-month sentence. While that was the longest sentence to date to come from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, it could have been much worse for Manafort. Sentencing guidelines called for a 20-year-term, effectively a lifetime sentence for the 69-year-old.

Manafort still faces the possibility of additional time from his sentencing in a separate case in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty to charges related to illegal lobbying.

Before Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence, Manafort told him that "saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement." But he offered no explicit apology, something Ellis noted before issuing his sentence.

Manafort steered Donald Trump's election efforts during crucial months of the 2016 campaign as Russia sought to meddle in the election through hacking of Democratic email accounts. He was among the first Trump associates charged in the Mueller investigation and has been a high-profile defendant.

But the charges against Manafort were unrelated to his work on the campaign or the focus of Mueller's investigation: whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russians.

A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the IRS millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Manafort's lawyers argued that their client had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case, and cited numerous past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions from the IRS and served less than a year in prison.

Prosecutors said Manafort's conduct was egregious, but Ellis ultimately agreed more with defense attorneys. "These guidelines are quite high," Ellis said.

Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys had requested a particular sentence length in their sentencing memoranda, but prosecutors had urged a "significant" sentence.

Outside court, Manafort's lawyer, Kevin Downing, said his client accepted responsibility for his conduct "and there was absolutely no evidence that Mr. Manafort was involved in any collusion with the government of Russia."

Prosecutors left the courthouse without making any comment.

Though Manafort hasn't faced charges related to collusion, he has been seen as one of the most pivotal figures in the Mueller investigation. Prosecutors, for instance, have scrutinized his relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate U.S. authorities say is tied to Russian intelligence, and have described a furtive meeting the men had in August 2016 as cutting to the heart of the investigation.

After pleading guilty in the D.C. case, Manafort met with investigators for more than 50 hours as part of a requirement to cooperate with the probe. But prosecutors reiterated at Thursday's hearing that they believe Manafort was evasive and untruthful in his testimony to a grand jury.

Manafort was wheeled into the courtroom about 3:45 p.m. in a green jumpsuit from the Alexandria jail, where he spent the last several months in solitary confinement. The jet black hair he bore in 2016 when serving as campaign chairman was gone, replaced by a shaggy gray. He spent much of the hearing hunched at the shoulders, bearing what appeared to be an air of resignation.

Defense lawyers had argued that Manafort would never have been charged if it were not for Mueller's probe. At the outset of the trial, even Ellis agreed with that assessment, suggesting that Manafort was being prosecuted only to pressure him to "sing" against Trump. Prosecutors said the Manafort investigation preceded Mueller's appointment.

The jury convicted Manafort on eight felonies related to tax and bank fraud charges for hiding foreign income from his work in Ukraine from the IRS and later inflating his income on bank loan applications. Prosecutors have said the work in Ukraine was on behalf of politicians who were closely aligned with Russia, though Manafort insisted his work helped those politicians distance themselves from Russia and align with the West.

In arguing for a significant sentence, prosecutor Greg Andres said Manafort still hasn't accepted responsibility for his misconduct.

"His sentencing positions are replete with blaming others," Andres said. He also said Manafort still has not provided a full account of his finances for purposes of restitution, a particularly egregious omission given that his crime involved hiding more than $55 million in overseas bank accounts to evade paying more than $6 million in federal income taxes.

In the D.C. case, Manafort faces up to five years in prison on each of two counts to which he pleaded guilty. The judge will have the option to impose any sentence there concurrent or consecutive to the sentence imposed by Ellis.</s>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The Latest on Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort (all times local):

Reports say Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison.

The sentencing hearing for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has begun in Virginia with the 69-year-old entering the courtroom in a wheelchair.

A jury in Alexandria convicted Manafort last year on eight counts of tax and bank fraud related to his overseas work advising politicians in Ukraine.

Federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of roughly 20 years, though few observers expect Manafort to receive a sentence that long.

Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys offered specific recommendations for a length of sentence, but defense attorneys are hoping for a term significantly less than 20 years.

Manafort also still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia in a separate case related to illegal lobbying.

In court papers, defense lawyers say Manafort is suffering from gout and poor health.

Donald Trump's ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort could be set to receive a decades-long prison sentence for tax and bank fraud.

The 69-year-old Manafort was convicted last year of hiding from the IRS millions of dollars he earned from his work advising Ukrainian politicians.

Manafort is scheduled to appear Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, where he could get 20 years under federal guidelines but his lawyers have sought a shorter sentence.</s>ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians.

Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence Thursday, capping the only jury trial following indictments stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

A jury last year convicted Manafort on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the Internal Revenue Service millions of dollars he earned from his work in Ukraine.

Federal sentencing guidelines had called for a term of roughly 20 years, but few observers had expected he would receive a sentence that long.

Manafort still faces sentencing in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty in a separate case connected to illegal lobbying.</s>United States President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison on Thursday for tax crimes and bank fraud, AFP reported. The crimes were revealed during an investigation into the alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

The sentence is the longest given to any defendant in Robert Mueller’s investigation into the alleged election meddling, reported CNN. Mueller is the special counsel overseeing the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and whether Trump campaign figures were complicit.

Manafort was convicted last year for defrauding banks and the government, and failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he earned from Ukrainian political consulting.

Manafort is one of the six top associates of Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign to be charged in the Mueller investigation. Judge TS Ellis III of the US District Court in Virginia said Manafort’s crimes were “very serious”, but following the guidelines would have resulted in an unduly harsh punishment, The New York Times reported.

The court also ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 (Rs 35.04 lakh) and to serve three years of supervised release. He will also have to pay restitution of at least $24 million (Rs 168.22 crore).

Manafort will be sentenced next week in Washington for two more crimes he pleaded guilty to last year – witness tampering and conspiracy related to his illegal Ukrainian lobbying and money laundering.</s>ALEXANDRIA, Virginia: US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison Thursday (Mar 7) for tax crimes and bank fraud.

It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling - but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

US District Judge T S Ellis imposed the sentence of 47 months in prison on Manafort, 69, during the hearing in Alexandria, Virginia.

Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant, was found guilty last August by a jury of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.

While prosecutors had not recommended a specific sentence, they had cited federal sentencing guidelines that called for 19-1/2 to 24 years in prison.

But Ellis said the sentencing guidelines were excessive and would create "an unwarranted disparity" with other cases.

Ellis also noted during the hearing that Manafort "is not before the court for any allegations that he, or anyone at his direction, colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election".

Manafort asked Ellis for mercy and thanked him for conducting a fair trial. He did not express remorse for his actions but talked about how the case has been difficult for him and his family.

Manafort, who opted not to testify during his trial, told the court that "to say I have been humiliated and ashamed would be a gross understatement."

He described his life as "professionally and financially in shambles."

Manafort, with noticeably grayer hair than just months ago, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair holding a cane, wearing a green prison jumpsuit emblazoned with the words "Alexandria inmate" on the back.

It was a far cry from Manafort's usual dapper appearance and stylish garb. He has been jailed leading up to his sentencing.

Manafort was convicted after prosecutors accused him of hiding from the US government millions of dollars he earned as a consultant for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government.

After pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster, prosecutors said, Manafort lied to banks to secure loans and maintain an opulent lifestyle with luxurious homes, designer suits and even a US$15,000 ostrich-skin jacket.

His defense team argued he should get a lighter sentence because he had agreed to cooperate with the prosecution after he was convicted - though another judge found he breached that deal by repeatedly lying to prosecutors - and because his bid to secure a US$5.5 million bank loan on fraudulent premises did not actually succeed.

Manafort faces sentencing in a separate case next Wednesday in Washington on two conspiracy charges to which he pleaded guilty last September.

While he faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in the Washington case, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson potentially could stack that on top of the sentence imposed in the Virginia case, rather than allowing the sentences to run concurrently.

Manafort is the only one of the 34 people and three companies charged by Mueller to have gone to trial. Several others including former campaign aides Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen have pleaded guilty, while longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty.

Gates, a key witness against Manafort, has yet to be sentenced due to his ongoing cooperation with prosecutors.

Trump, who has called Mueller's investigation a politically motivated "witch hunt," has not ruled out granting a presidential pardon to Manafort, saying in November that "I wouldn’t take it off the table."

Jackson on Feb 13 ruled that Manafort had breached his agreement to cooperate with Mueller's office by lying to prosecutors about three matters pertinent to the Russia probe including his interactions with a business partner they have said has ties to Russian intelligence.

Mueller is preparing to submit to U.S. Attorney General William Barr a report on his investigation into whether Trump's campaign conspired with Russia and whether Trump has unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe.

Trump has denied collusion and obstruction and Russia has denied election interference.

The crimes for Manafort was convicted did not directly relate to the 2016 election.

The sentencing capped a stunning downfall for Manafort, a prominent figure in Republican Party circles for decades who also worked as a consultant to such international figures as former Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and Yanukovych.

Manafort worked for Trump's campaign for five pivotal months in 2016 that included the Republican National Convention where Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination, three of them as campaign chairman.

Defense lawyers had asked Ellis to sentence Manafort to between 4-1/4 and 5-1/4 years in prison, writing in their sentencing memo that Mueller's "attempt to vilify Mr Manafort as a lifelong and irredeemable felon is beyond the pale and grossly overstates the facts before this court."

Ellis had faced criticism by some in the legal community for comments he made during the trial that were widely interpreted as biased against the prosecution.

Ellis repeatedly interrupted prosecutors, told them to stop using the word "oligarch" to describe people associated with Manafort because it made him seem "despicable," and objected to pictures of Manafort's luxury items they planned to show jurors.

"It isn't a crime to have a lot of money and be profligate in your spending," Ellis told prosecutors during the trial.
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for eight counts including tax fraud and bank fraud.