18 months in prison for gates despite cooperating.
Manafort is looking at 20 years if he doesn't give up trump.
He has to decide between dying in prison and ratting on trump.
Nothingburger, over by 2/1
He's facing much more than that. As it sits right now, Manafort is facing up to 80 years in prison, which would of course be a death sentence as he would never live long enough to make parole.
Gates was facing up to 70 years. Now, they're not saying what he's going to get. The speculation is 18 months. I'm willing to bet that is incorrect. He'll probably get 5 years or so with a stipulation for early parole if he's a model prisoner.
Either way, Manafort is well and truly fucked.
I don't see any way out for Manafort unless he has a smoking gun on Trump. It's got to be solid, concrete shit for it to hold water with Mueller. If it isn't, then Mueller already has his "top dog", will never cut a deal with Manafort, and see to it that he dies in prison.
If Manafort does have that smoking gun though, he's going to give it up. He's going to have to. I don't see ANYBODY staring down the barrel of a life sentence (in effect) and just HOPING that Trump keeps his word and pardons him or that he will even be able to at all even if he wanted to.
We'll know within the next few months, I'm sure.
