Comment: Even within its own articles, CNN can't keep its lies straight. Further down this article you'll learn that the judge explicitly said, at the outset, that:
"[Manafort] is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government."
The crimes, though serious among white-collar offenses, did not relate directly to Manafort's work as Trump's 2016 campaign chairman. Manafort, 69, had been facing up to 25 years in prison, a sentence that could have essentially kept him in jail for the rest of his life.
Comment: It was never gonna happen. The US govt, as it is, literally cannot function without middlemen like Manaforts accepting cash for access to US leaders and potential leaders. What is interesting however, is that this particular middleman got any prison time at all...
Comment: 'The mastermind behind it all! We got him! America, you are safe and free and pure again!'
Manafort's trial is the textbook definition of scapegoat.
The reason Manafort was swimming in dirty Ukie money is because he was, for over a decade, an active go-between for US meddling in Russia's neighbor, culminating in the bloody coup of 2014. That's also likely why he's getting jail-time at all (though it could yet be annulled via presidential pardon): Manafort was meddling on behalf of the Clinton State Department...