For the next three-years, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer and ‘fixer’ will trade in a New York City penthouse for a prison cell.
Wednesday a federal judge sentenced Cohen to three-years in prison for a multitude of crimes including breaking campaign finance rules, tax evasion and lying to Congress. In fact Judge William H. Pauley III said Mr. Cohen had committed a “veritable smorgasbord” of crimes involving deception and “motivated by personal greed and ambition,” each of which “standing alone warrant serious punishment.
Over the past several months, Cohen has been cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the ongoing Russian investigation and the South District of New York in a total 180 against his former boss Donald Trump a guy who he once said he would ‘take a bullet for’. Moreover, Cohen has become one of Trump’s biggest threats as the former fixer implicated the President as ‘Individual 1’ in relation to who gave the direction for those hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. Those payment which has constituted campaign finance violations and a felony for Cohen could ultimately become a serious threat to the Trump presidency and possible implication when he leaves office.
Cohen’s cooperation was a move that he believed could possible limit his prison time and it’s that cooperation that his legal team noted during sentencing Wednesday is a last minute mercy plea.
Via Vox:
Cohen had hoped that his assistance with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation would earn him leniency, and had asked for no prison time at all. But though Mueller said Cohen had indeed been helpful, prosecutors from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) were less impressed, and recommended “a substantial term of imprisonment.”
After the sentencing, Cohen gave a tearful speech in front of the court saying that he was in fact ‘weak’ after the President’s criticism but not for the reasons that Trump may think. Cohen said that he himself was ‘weak’ because “time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.” Cohen continued by comparing his time working for Trump as “a personal mental and mental incarceration,” and that he took “full responsibility” for the crimes he pleaded guilty to — including those that implicated “the president of the United States of America.”
Cohen is expected to report for prison in March and until then Cohen’s lawyer commented after the ruling his client would continue to tell the “truth” on Trump.
