No, the government/previous justice department made an example out of Mannafort bigtime. The message was: If you support trump and are part of his team we will hunt you down and destroy you. They accomplished that. Ditto for a dozen other Trump associates. Not supporting the Justice Department- approved candidate and not being pre-authorized by the FBI to win an election is a very risky position to be in. The Smollett idiot started out by trying to be a national victim and his scheme blew up on him. He will still accomplish his goal of being seen as a victim before it is over. It's what they do, along with the army of national lefty attorneys who suddenly show up to take up their cause, so they can write a book.
They are giving Jussie Smollet only 4 years probation which is not even a slap on the wrist despite, the 16 counts of various felonies he committed! Something is wrong with this picture. Liberal media hard at work portraying him as the victim when he perpetrated a hate crime hoax. Not even restitution or punitive damages? Those prosecuting this case needs to be fired as they are not doing their jobs!
Smollette probably gonna face federal charges too, and some pretty serious ones too. The feds frown upon sending white powder through the mail with threatening messages, even if it tested out to just be ground up tylenol. There is somewhat of demeanor among the tards here and in the country, that the poor Smollett kid went a little too far with a prank and now the government is piling on and because he has no arrest record he should just be sentenced to taking anger management courses and picking up litter along the highway for a couple saturday mornings. Okay, well, is that what the sentencing guidelines are for people sending white powder through the mail has traditionally been? And, as I said, those would/will be federal charges, so that is independent of how hard he is hit or not hit under state laws. And then there is an attitude among some that 16 counts is too much. Well, how do you know that? If- for example- he lied ten different times to state or federal officers that would be ten counts of perjury or misleading law enforcement right there. Should we be decidng, no, no,no, four is enough to make the point? Does anyone here think that Mueller would turn down any counts on anyone he interviews? Also, it was for the grand jury to decide whether to indict on various counts for Smollett and they did that. When was Carter Page put before a grand jury now that we have destroyed him and the feds used him to launch an investigation on Camp Trump?
I would be surprised if this punk serves a day in jail. That said I don't believe he should go away for decades. 3-5 years would be sufficient IMO.
Agree with you on Jussie Smollet. He has to do jail time to make an example of so that, others do not copy what he did! Also, impose restitution and make him pay for the cost of all the police investigations plus penalties on top of that! He has to pay a heavy financial price as well! Do that with Jussie Smollet and most of these hoax hate crimes vanish out of thin air!
To state the obvious- which he may or may not resist- it is a situation where his sentencing will be impacted greatly by the degree to which he cooperates or not. If he wants to put on a full defense on the white power threatening through the mail stunt and make the feds prove their case- after they already pissed about having to send full teams over to the studio and open an investigation- then he better hope that he is found not guilty because the prosecutors will not be in a kumbaya mood at sentencing time. I know that that aspect detracts from the media focus on his fake attack stunt, but it is there and will have to be dealt with. The prosecutors have enormous pressure on them- and rightfully so- to go into full battle mode with anything that looks like a biological threat, particularly if the receiver is ranting on about the hate crime aspect. Not sure they give a shiite what state courts do on his local stunt or whether the fed judge there will give him any credit for state sentencing. I saw his celebrity lawyer on the TV - not big screen- ranting on about how he is going to play the victim card. Ahh okay. Do what you gotta do. Just make sure you dont make the feds prove their case and grind on forever in court and on appeal unless you think you can get an acquittal. Otherwise his ass is grass if he is convicted. Also they may already have sufficient evidence and dont need his cooperation. There is already an atmosphere where law enforcement does not like the idea that he gamed them and made fools out of them. Not sure how receptive they are to his loud-mouthed lawyer announcing that he is preparing to game them some more. Smolletts problem- not mine. Play your cards in any way that works for you. Howd the last couple stunts work for ya, Dumphuk?