Shareholder Ryan S. Hedges recently contributed commentary and analysis to Law360 regarding the sentencing of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the impact the sentence may have on future criminal cases. The article states that Mr. Manafort’s sentencing to a four-year prison term, “despite calls for a nearly 25-year term, is a reminder of just how much power judges have” over the special counsel’s investigation.

Mr. Hedges, a member of the firm’s Government Enforcement & Special Investigations group and former federal prosecutor, said the impact of the deviation from prosecutors’ recommendation for a much longer sentence in light of Manafort’s conduct in this case will play out as prosecutors attempt to convince others to cooperate and help them pursue complicated white collar schemes. “It’s really troubling from the government’s perspective the total lack of incentive that it provides to others to cooperate,” said Mr. Hedges regarding the sentence. He said that concern may push the government to appeal the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III.

Mr. Hedges, along with other white collar defense attorneys quoted, commented that Judge Ellis’s ruling in the Manafort case “was an outlier that shouldn’t be interpreted as a prediction of how other criminal indictments from the special counsel’s office could end up,” or even how Mr. Manafort’s second sentencing in a parallel DC case scheduled for later in March before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson will turn out. Mr. Hedges concludes his commentary noting it’s fairly likely Judge Jackson will choose to have Manafort serve his second sentence consecutively considering the sentence imposed by Judge Ellis.

To read the article and Mr. Hedges’s comments in full, please click here. (Subscription may be required.)