The media and Democrats really wanted Paul Manafort to be guilty of collusion with Russia. They also wanted him to spend the rest of his life in prison. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III gaveled those wishes into dust yesterday.

“Paul Manafort, who once served as President Trump’s campaign chairman, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison Thursday for cheating on his taxes and bank fraud — a far lesser sentence than the roughly 20 years he had faced under federal sentencing guidelines.

U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III called that guidelines calculation “excessive” and sentenced the longtime lobbyist instead to 47 months in prison.”

Needless to say, people were not amused. They so badly wanted this to be about Trump colluding with Russia, when in fact the case itself was about tax and bank fraud.

“Manafort’s trial documented his career as an international lobbyist whose profligate spending habits were part of the evidence showing he’d cheated the Internal Revenue Service out of $6 million by hiding $16 million in income.

At the outset of the hearing, Ellis addressed the larger special counsel investigation, saying Manafort was not convicted “for anything to do with Russian colluding in the presidential election.”

But the judge also rejected Manafort’s attorneys’ claims that the lack of any such evidence undermined the case, saying he had considered that issue at the beginning of the case. “I concluded that it was legitimate” for the special counsel to charge Manafort with financial crimes, Ellis said.”

Yet that didn’t matter to the media nor the Democrats. Here are a couple of the media headlines.

CNN:  A shockingly lenient sentence for Paul Manafort

NBC:  Manafort’s light sentence slammed as ‘disrespectful,’ ‘lenient,’ ‘an outrage’

The reactions are honestly kind of funny and well..embarrassing. 

“”As a former prosecutor, I’m embarrassed,” said NBC News and MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, speaking Thursday on MSNBC. “As an American, I’m upset … I am just as disappointed with Judge Ellis. It’s an outrage and it’s disrespectful of the American people.””

Lawrence Tribe is really mad.

“”Judge Ellis has inexcusably perverted justice and the guidelines,” Harvard Law School professor and Trump critic Laurence Tribe”

Let’s not forget about the Democrats and their reactions. Judge Ellis should’ve recused himself according to Congresscritter Gerald Connolly (D-VA)

In other words, you didn’t sentence Manafort the way WE wanted so you must go! Let’s blame the judge!

Ex-CIA Director John Brennan: "It's an extraordinarily lenient sentence in light of the extent and scope of Mr. Manafort's criminality … I think this sentence says a lot more about Judge Ellis than it does about Paul Manafort." @hardball

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 8, 2019

No wait! That’s not it. Someone paid the judge!

Paul Manafort getting such little jail time for such serious crimes lays out for the world how it’s almost impossible for rich people to go to jail for the same amount of time as someone who is lower income.

In our current broken system, “justice” isn’t blind. It’s bought. https://t.co/1UgBXmR8bl

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2019

It’s funny how the Dem/media complex viewed the sentencing guidelines as rules. It’s highly evident that they don’t understand the meaning of guidelines. Hence the screams that the judge was too lenient and that someone bought him off.

The whataboutism is something to behold.

I have to agree with Piers Morgan here.

BREAKING: Paul Manafort gets very short prison sentence, and judge says it has nothing to do with Russian collusion.
Trump-bashing media left bemused as everything they screamed would happen…..hasn't happened.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 8, 2019

Manafort’s legal troubles are far from over as he faces sentencing in a different court in the near future. For those screaming that the sentencing was too lenient, it’s not that he was slapped on the wrist, the fines are going to hit his pocketbook hard. 

“In addition to 47 months in prison, Ellis ordered Manafort to pay a $50,000 fine and approximately $24 million in restitution, and to spend an additional three years on federal supervision. Ellis said the nine months Manafort has already spent in jail should count against his total sentence.”

Everyone really wanted a harsher sentence as if that would somehow make the Russia! Trump! Collusion! thing a reality. That didn’t happen and the tantrums have been quite epic.

Feature Photo Credit: Shawn Thew, EPA-EFE, via Creative Commons, cropped and modified