McCabe says he was ‘shocked’ by ‘incredibly lenient’ Manafort sentence

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe said Sunday that he was “shocked” that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced to just under four years in prison for a variety of financial crimes.

“I was really surprised by the sentence he was given. I think it’s an incredibly lenient sentence in light not just of the offenses he was convicted for, but the additional offenses that he has pled guilty to in D.C.,” McCabe said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“Like most people, I was shocked by how lenient the sentence was,” he added.

Andrew McCabe says he was “shocked by how lenient” Manafort’s sentence was. “It introduces a level of doubt and insecurity into a system that we all need to depend upon for being fair and free.” He predicts Manafort will receive additional sentencing from a D.C. court this week. pic.twitter.com/pwOjWZI9n1

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 10, 2019

{mosads}A federal judge in Virginia last Thursday sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison, well below the 19 1/2 to 24 years Manafort could have received under the advisory sentencing recommendations.

McCabe noted on Sunday that there’s “no question” Manafort will get additional time when he’s sentenced by a D.C. court judge this week, though he added that it’s not Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s duty to take into account the Virginia sentencing.

McCabe, who was fired from the FBI last year after an internal report found he was not forthcoming with investigators, also chastised President Trump for his regular attacks on the justice system and defenses of Manafort.

While McCabe suggested in his book, “The Threat,” that such comments could amount to witness tampering,  he acknowledged on Sunday that he does not believe that influenced Manafort’s sentencing last week.

“But the point that I try to make in the book is to try to highlight how incredibly irresponsible and indeed corrosive statements like that from the chief executive are on the process and on the public’s perception of the fairness and the effectiveness of the process.”