The Stark Choices That Paul Manafort Faces After His Indictment In Washington, DC

Paul Manafort's Indictment By Robert Mueller

There is some gallows humor that I first heard in early 1974 in Baltimore. An elderly man faces a judge to get his sentence for some serious crimes. He is shocked when he receives a sentence of 25 years. He knows that he will die in prison. The defendant mutters to the judge:

"But you Honor, I can't do all that time."

The judge gives an ironic and sarcastic response:

"Well do whatever part of it that you can."

I have not read the indictments on Paul Manafort and Rick Gates yet. I have seen what the investigators are looking at. The sums of money are staggering. We are talking about as much as $100 million. Any defendant facing a judge with that large of a financial crime would be looking at a sentence between 15 years and 20 years in any Federal court room in the USA.

Paul Manafort is 68 years of age. If he receives that sort of prison sentence, there is a good chance that he will die in prison. All of his assets will be seized in civil forfeitures.

I'm sure that State of New York charges will also be filed against Manafort. If Trump does pardon him, he still will end up in some very unpleasant New York prison like Sing Sing.

On the other hand, if Manafort and Gates cooperate with authorities, their final sentences, most likely, would be in a range of 3-5 years.

Given this set of circumstances, what would you do if you found yourself in a predicament like this?