White Collar Justice

No Rikers Island for Paul Manafort. Not much country club prison, either.

It is good to be rich, politically connected, and have done white collar crimes while wearing a nice suit.

This week's news is that Paul Manafort is being released from prison to be in house arrest in the three bedroom apartment in northern Virginia, where his wife lives. He served about 30% of his 8 year sentence at a federal minimum security prison. His lawyers argued that "it was only a matter of time before the infection spreads to staff and inmates at FCI [Federal Correctional Institution] Loretto at which time it may be too late to protect high risk inmates, such as Mr. Manafort, from contracting the potentially deadly virus." 

There are actually no confirmed cases of the virus at that facility, but he was released anyway. Previously, in a very unusual intervention, federal prosecutors arranged that Manafort not be held at Rikers Island Correctional, as would be normal, prior to his sentencing.

Normal prison--the fate of two million Americans--would be too hard on Mr. Manafort.

Paul Manafort's guilt is not in question. He admitted to crimes in a plea arrangement in September, 2018: tax fraud, money laundering, defrauding banks, and illegal foreign lobbying on behalf of Ukrainian officials. He earned millions from this work, lived lavishly, dealt in cash, and paid taxes on much less than he earned. He served briefly as Trump's unpaid campaign manager, a role that brought him influence and credibility with Ukrainian clients, so there was no need to be paid twice, on both ends.

Manafort has remained loyal to Trump and kept his mouth shut. Same with Michael Flynn, who pled guilty to lying to the FBI regarding being a foreign agent and back channel communicating to Russia that Trump would reverse economic sanctions on them. In another extraordinary move, the Department of Justice formally requested that his guilty plea and admission of guilt be vacated, saying Flynn should not have been investigated for the crimes he admitted he committed. 

Standing up for Trump is not a requirement. The real message here is not just loyalty. It is the way we think about white collar crime. Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney, was also released to house arrest. Prison life would be too much for him. 

There is a bigger message in all this: Americans don't really care about white collar crime. They say they do. People tsk-tsk. But men in suits don't scare Americans, so they are treated as political players, not as criminal actors. Manafort, Flynn, and Cohen are white collar criminals. They show up with lawyers, not shackles. Manafort stole millions from federal taxpayers and both he and Flynn participated in crony corruption that linked American elections to Ukrainian oil oligarchs. Michael Cohen assisted Trump break election laws. 

The response to these three are utterly predictable on partisan grounds. Democrats and career law enforcement professionals complain of violations of "rule of law." Trump dismisses it as a witch hunt, says the career prosecutors are Deep State criminals, the actual bad guys. 

GOP officeholders and their media allies line up predictably: Manafort and Flynn are heroes; Cohen is a rat; open Senate investigation of the prosecutors. Democrats and left media express concern about COVID in prison, support the prosecution of all three, feel sorry for Cohen, and feel frustrated they are being rolled. 

This week Trump argued before the Supreme Court that his tax and other financial records must not be revealed, even to Congressional oversight to investigate for evidence of foreign obligations that would affect national security, for money laundering, or for tax fraud, areas of substantial and legitimate public interest. I suspect that no one--not even Trump's most loyal advocates--think's Trump's actual motivation is ideological support for Article Two exemption from accountability to protect future presidential independence from oversight. We all know better. Those arguments are the fig leaf, the legal fiction. He happily advocates for investigations of the private and public life of his predecessor Barrack Obama, and certainly would a future president Joe Biden. 

Click: "That makes me smart" 30 seconds

Trump's actual motivation is transparent: to hide something illegal or embarrassing or both. It is a natural instinct. The problem is that it is misplaced in an officeholder whose job is the faithful execution of the laws. Trump is a finagler. He understands the tax laws, the campaign laws, the lobbying laws, money laundering laws as hurdles to negotiate, not as reflections of a public consensus on good behavior codified into law. He bragged that he didn't pay taxes because it was "smart." He could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. It is a patriotism of "take care of number one," and it works for him. because Americans are OK with it. Trump delivers on anti abortion judges, opposition to immigration, resistance to Democratic political correctness, and that is what matters. Not white collar crimes. That gives Trump a solid Republican base.

White collar criminals--people who endanger our democracy or who cheat the federal treasury of millions--can be released to sit at home and watch television, just like every other retiree or COVID-unemployed American. 

There is a corollary message in this. Paying taxes is for suckers.