Paul Manafort sentenced to another 3 1/2 years in prison for conspiracy charges

Paul Manafort was sentenced to 73 months in prison on Wednesday in the former Trump campaign chair's second of two federal criminal cases.

The Wednesday sentence, issued by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., came in response to Manafort's guilty plea to witness tampering and unregistered lobbying. It also comes after Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison last week, receiving nine months credit for time already served.

Manafort's first case ran through an Alexandria, Virginia courthouse, where he was found guilty of eight criminal counts related to bank and tax fraud. Jackson decided Manafort will serve 30 months of his Wednesday sentence concurrently with the 47-month sentence, giving him a total of 81 months, or about seven years, in prison after time served.

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Manafort faced up to 10 years in prison at his second sentencing on Wednesday. Like in his first trial, Manafort's lawyers asked for leniency after the GOP operative suffered apparent health issues while waiting for his trial and sentencing in prison. His friends and family also wrote letters to Berman Jackson, asking that he be credited for "promoting American democratic values" around the world, CNN details. Jackson rejected that plea, saying there is "there is no good explanation that would warrant the leniency requested." She did thank Manafort's family for the letters.

In his first case, Manafort was facing up to 24 years in prison. If he had received both maximum sentences served consecutively, it could've been an effective life sentence for the 69-year-old.