(WASHINGTON) — Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are asking a judge in Virginia for leniency ahead of a sentencing hearing next week.
Manafort is to be sentenced next Thursday after being convicted last summer of eight financial crimes.
Probation officials have calculated a sentencing guideline range of between 19.5 and 24 years in prison for Manafort. Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller’s office have endorsed that calculation.
On Friday, Manafort’s lawyers called that calculation “clearly disproportionate” for the crimes Manafort was convicted of.
Manafort’s lawyers did not recommend their own sentence, but asked for one substantially lower than what’s suggested by probation officials. They asked the judge to take into account the fact that Manafort is a “first-time offender.”
Manafort faces a separate sentence in the District of Columbia.
