An otherwise blameless life
By 
Take it away Laurence Tribe:
Calling Manafort’s life of criminal collaboration with murderous dictators and of stealing tens of millions of dollars from American taxpayers “otherwise blameless” is a sick joke. It’s as though Judge Ellis himself was angling for the pardon Trump dangled in front of Manafort.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) March 8, 2019
Right! Calling Manafort’s crimes nonviolent is itself not just tone-deaf but utterly ignorant. That greedy, inhumane felon has blood on his hands for sure, however often he tries to wash them. It’ll serve him right for Trump to withhold the pardon he’s so temptingly dangled. https://t.co/Fu8SSZVZlO
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) March 8, 2019
Judge Ellis’s assessment that Manafort led an “otherwise blameless life” was proof that he’s unfit to serve on the federal bench. I’ve rarely been more disgusted by a judge’s transparently preferential treatment to a rich white guy who betrayed the law and the nation.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) March 8, 2019
Exactly. This is like saying Roger Stone has led an otherwise blameless life if you just overlook his role in stealing the 2016 election. Or Donald Trump for that matter. It’s beyond grotesque. In addition Tribe points out these aren’t minor financial crimes, (aka crimes committed by rich white men) because a lot of people have already died as a direct result of Manafort’s lawbreaking.
Also too, a at least a couple of people in the thread below are saying well it’s probably half his remaining life expectancy. As of 2014 70-year-old American men as a group had a life expectancy of 14.3 years — a statistical generalization which doesn’t account for the massive effects of social class on life expectancy, so the odds are that Manafort’s LE is quite a bit higher, assuming no confounding effects from polonium and the like, which frankly at this point would be the kind of rough justice this snake deserves.