Page 19 - Non Sequitur News Today

Infraction and the judge said that was absolutely not the case, that the special counsels office was not on trial here. that manafort had committed these crimes, multiple crimes over multiple years of his life and she held him to account for that and she made it -- she specifically took the time to say that the argument of no collusion was unrelated to the matter at hand and it was not factoring into her decision today at all to pass on those additional years on manaforts sentence, brianna. >> y...

She was taking all of that into account, and going through piece by piece of his character and of his conduct since he pleaded guilty in the investigation and quite frankly not very pleased with him. >> not very pleased with him or his attorneys. she brought up that in one of the filings to the court that the attorneys made the case that there was no russian collusion, and she brought up, look, thats a non sequitur, why would you put that in court filings? it has nothing to do with robert muelle...

Victim here. but she clearly stated time and time again that she did not buy in to paul manaforts arguments, that he, you know, accepted responsibility. she said saying "im sorry" because i got caught is not an inspiring plea for leniency. basically saying this was too little, too late. basically, for the first time today in court he said he was sorry for what he did and his conduct. and she basically just said that she could see through his games, see through his spin. she said, were you spinni...

Publicly as a clear plate for the president and b for the possibility of a pardon or commutation. tell us and explain to our viewers more about this particular judge and how she has handled the politics of this big legal case. >> so, i think shes been very good at keeping a lot of that out of the courtroom. she said that it still matters in the courtroom and thats whats important. she said that a lot of what paul manafort, what his attorneys were doing were for some kind of public sympathy. ther...

Non sequitur and that has nothing to do with what is before me. she was none too pleased with his attorneys bringing that up and with paul manafort himself and she basically said he was playing games and were you laying out the facts then to get a better deal and she could see through what he was doing through his calculating actions today, john? >> you guys stand by at the courthouse. were waiting to see if manaforts attorneys come out to speak to reporters. the canadian transport minister call...

Crimes knowingly even after he pleaded guilty. she said that did have relevance in her decision today. the fact that he lied after he reached that plea agreement to investigators and of course the witness tampering. but she also tried to strike a balance where she said, hes not a victim, but hes also not public enemy number one. she certainly did not give him the maximum punishment that she could have in this case, but he also singled out his attorneys at one point saying, the fact that they bro...

That were at this moment where you have manafort going to prison and the other cases winding down and the special counsel can make the case and my job is to find crime, and if youre on team trump, make the case, and i thought it was about russian collusion. wheres your evidence? >> the reality is this isnt the end and it is the most high profill capr profile case and its ad nauseam and things moving through the courtroom. i think whats interesting. you made a point that sticks out to me. regardl...

That. how it was a non sequitur and basically sending signals to manaforts, you know, audience of one, president trump it will be interesting to see what the white house said. im sure they will say, one, he was campaign manager for a short time. he was campaign manager, a key position in electing the president of the united states. number two, there was no collusion. as the judge said today, that has nothing to do with the charges today and there is no finding by this court on whether there was ...

Getting close to a sentence. so because of that and were also about 10 seconds away from the top of the hour, i will leave you now and turn things over to andrea mitchell. andrea mitchell reports starts now. >> thank you, craig melvin. the suspense is mounting. im andrea mitchell in washington. moments away from the sentence for paul manafort. it may be tacked on for the 48 month sentence from a very judge. judge amy berman jackson opened the proceeding saying what she is doing cannot be a revis...

Pete williams, now joining us, that collusion was not an issue here. that is a non sequitur. he was not charged with that. we know russia and that relationship, those allegations are the heart of the mueller case but that was not what was on trial here. shes pushing back against what his defense attorneys said in virginia after the sentencing last week and what the president of the united states said, more importantly. >> and what the defense said in its sentencing memo in this case here in the ...