Portal:United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

“ The district court sentenced her to ten months’ imprisonment and restitution payable to the U.S. Department of Education. The only issue on appeal is the amount of restitution. Tanner asserts that, at sentencing, the court orally pronounced restitution of $63,221. ”

“ The record confirms that the court intended to order restitution of $106,744. The presentence investigation report, which the court adopted, divides Tanner’s fraud into two distinct line items: fraudulent loans and fraudulent grants. The “total outstanding loan balance ... [was] $63,221,” and the “outstanding balance for fraudulently obtained grants [was] $43,523,” making “$106,744” the “total restitution due.” ”

“ Tanner contends that the sentence as orally pronounced conflicts with the written judgment and, therefore, the oral pronouncement controls. We conclude that, although the oral pronouncement was ambiguous, it does not conflict with the written judgment. After reviewing the record to determine the intent, we affirm the written judgment.
I. Ordinarily, if a defendant raises a sentencing error for the first time on appeal, we review only for plain error. United States v. Diggles, 957 F.3d 551, 559 (5th Cir. 2020) (en banc) , cert. ”