President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, will be sentenced in US District Court in Virginia on March 8, according to a court filing posted on Thursday. The filing, dated Feb. 19, said Manafort must file his sentencing memorandum by the evening of March 1. The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller will have the opportunity to file a reply to Manafort's memo by March 6. Mueller's team has urged the judge in Virginia to impose a lengthy prison sentence on Manafort, who a jury convicted last year on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. In a sentencing memo last week, the special counsel's team said Manafort deserves between 19.6 and 24.4 years in prison and a fine of between $50,000 and $24 million. A federal judge in Washington recently ruled that Manafort — one of the first people in Trump's orbit to face criminal charges stemming from Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — had breached his plea bargain with Mueller in a parallel case. US District Judge T.S. Ellis in Alexandria, Virginia, had postponed his sentencing until after that ruling. Russia denies meddling in the election. Trump has said there was no collusion between his Republican campaign and Russia, and has labeled Mueller's investigation a witch-hunt. — Reuters
