The Manafort Sentence

During the trial of Paul Manafort Judge T.S. Ellis III acted injudiciously by wrongly commenting on the evidence and expressing his opinion as to the credibility of a witness in the presence of the jury thus, improperly, encroaching upon the province of that body as the finder of fact.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Judge Ellis has further demonstrated his lack of fitness by inexplicably characterizing the life of Mr. Manafort as "blameless" and by imposing a sentence of such unwarranted leniency as to virtually obliterate the Sentencing Guidelines. Such an unjustifiably short prison term calls into question the even-handedness and impartiality of our system of justice. Judge Ellis has done a great disservice to the rule of law.