Analysis: The 2020 Democratic candidates used the Manafort sentence to talk about criminal justice reform
By Eugene Scott Eugene Scott Reporter covering identity politics for The Fix Email Bio Follow March 8 at 1:18 PM President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison on Thursday — far less than the 20 years recommended by the government.
Several of the presidential hopefuls called out the sentence as too lenient and said it highlighted the need for criminal justice reform. “One of my friends said, ‘We have a criminal justice system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent,’ ” Booker said. “And there are people from neighborhoods like mine in America who get convicted for doing things that two of the last three presidents admitted to doing."Sen. Amy Klobuchar acknowledged that the judicial system seems to treat white-collar crime less seriously than crimes more common among working-class Americans and people of color.
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