Manafort's lawyers write a memo for Trump

Manafort's sentencing memorandum

Attorneys for Paul Manafort urged a judge to sentence him to substantially less than the 10-year maximum prison term he faces in his case in Washington, contending he has been treated harshly by the special counsel and “vilified in a manner that this country has not experienced in decades.”

[...]

[They[ stressed that Manafort was convicted of financial crimes related to his lobbying work and not accused of any collusion with Russia involving the 2016 presidential campaign. They highlighted his long career working with elected officials, including presidents, and said his actions came under intense scrutiny because he served as campaign chairman for President Trump.

[...]

The defense said Manafort was unduly singled out for prosecution by the special counsel’s office for “garden-variety” financial crimes and “esoteric” foreign lobbying disclosure violations but not, they said, on charges that showed any links between the Russian government or individuals and the campaign.

“As said at the beginning of the case,” his attorney wrote to Judge Amy Berman Jackson, “there is no evidence of Russian collusion.”

  WaPo

That's all obviously written for Trumpanzees and Trump himself. It's not going to be effective for swaying the judge. Doesn't matter how he came under scrutiny. What they found will be the question.

Manafort “is presented to this Court by the government as a hardened criminal who ‘brazenly’ violated the law and deserves no mercy. But this case is not about murder, drug cartels, organized crime, the Madoff Ponzi scheme or the collapse of Enron,” the attorneys wrote in a memo filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.

If he gets his pardon, those kinds of charges will be coming from New York's AG.

Mueller prosecutors reserved the right at sentencing March 13 to ask Jackson to impose a punishment that runs on top of any prison time Manafort is sentenced to for related crimes in a Virginia federal court.

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As with Jackson, Mueller prosecutors in Alexandria made no specific sentencing request and asked only that U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III hand down a sentence reflecting “the seriousness of these crimes.”

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Manafort’s attorneys asked for any sentences to run concurrently. “In light of his age and health concerns, a significant additional period of incarceration will likely amount to a life sentence for a first time offender,” wrote attorneys Kevin M. Downing, Thomas E. Zehnle and Richard W. Westling.

Perhaps he shouldn't have committed crimes while out on bond.

Manafort’s lawyers in their sentencing memo said Manafort acknowledged that conspiring with Kilimnik to attempt to tamper with witnesses was wrong, but his lawyers said the conduct consisted of a “handful of short or ignored telephone calls and text messages,” unlike “most witness tampering cases” involving offers of bribes, financial incentives or threats of physical harm.

Witness tampering lite. That the witness wouldn't be tampered with has no bearing on the attempt to do so. Again, this is obviously directed to Trumpland and not the judge, who knows better.

Conspiring with Kilimnik to attempt witness tampering and giving Kilimnik polling data just look like collusion. But they're not.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.