Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen gets three years in prison
Michael Cohen once boasted he’d ‘take a bullet’ for president
NEW YORK — Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s oncedevoted lawyer and all-around fixer, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison.
Standing alone at the defence table, 52-year-old Cohen shook his head slightly and closed his eyes as the judge pronounced the sentence.
Crimes included lying about his boss’s business dealings in Russia and funnelling hush money to two women who said they had sex with Trump.
Both Cohen and federal prosecutors said the payments were made at Trump’s direction to fend off damage to his White House bid.
Cohen is the only member of Trump’s circle during two years of investigations to go into open court and implicate the president.
Separately, prosecutors announced Wednesday that they filled in another piece of the puzzle in the hush-money case: The parent company of the National Enquirer acknowledged making one of those payments “in concert” with the Trump campaign to protect him from a story that could have hurt his candidacy.
During an appearance at the White House shortly after the sentencing, Trump ignored reporters’ questions about Cohen.
At the sentencing, U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III said Cohen deserved modest credit for his decision over the summer to admit guilt and co-operate in the federal investigation into alleged efforts by Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election, but his assistance “does not wipe the slate clean.”
“Somewhere along the way Mr. Cohen appears to have lost his moral compass,” the judge said.
“As a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better.”
The judge also ordered Cohen to pay $1.39 million in restitution to the IRS, forfeit $500,000 and pay $100,000 in fines.
He was ordered to report to prison March 6 and left court without comment.
The prison sentence was in line with what prosecutors asked for. Sentencing guidelines called for around four to five years, and the government asked in court papers that Cohen be given only a slight break.
“It was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light,” Cohen, who once boasted he would “take a bullet” for Trump, told the judge before the sentence came down.
“Time and time again, I thought it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than listen to my voice.”
Cohen choked up near the end of his remarks and paused briefly to compose himself. His daughter, seated behind him, sobbed throughout. As he returned to his seat, he ran his hand across her cheek.
Cohen’s lawyers had argued for leniency, saying he decided to co-operate with investigators rather than hold out for a possible pardon.
“He came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country,” defence attorney Guy Petrillo told the judge.
Cohen pleaded guilty in August to evading $1.4 million in taxes related to his personal businesses.
In the part of the case with political repercussions, he also admitted breaking campaign finance laws in arranging payments in the closing days of the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Last month, he also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress by concealing that he was negotiating a proposal to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow deep into the presidential campaign season.
He said he lied out of devotion to Trump, who had insisted during the campaign that he had no business ties whatever to Russia.
The sentence was the culmination of a spectacular rise and fast fall of a lawyer who attached himself to the fortunes of his biggest client, helped him get elected president, then turned on him, co-operating with two interconnected investigations: one run by federal prosecutors in New York, the other by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation.
Beyond the guilty pleas, it is unclear exactly what Cohen has told prosecutors, and it remains to be seen how much damage Cohen’s co-operation will do to Trump.
Legal experts said Cohen could get his sentence reduced if he strikes a deal with prosecutors to tell them more.
Cohen said in court that he will continue co-operating. And his legal adviser Lanny Davis, who previously represented president Bill Clinton, said the former political fixer will tell publicly “all he knows” about Trump after Mueller completes his investigation.
In the hush-money case, prosecutors said, Cohen arranged for the parent company of the National Enquirer to pay $150,000 to McDougal. He also paid $130,000 to Daniels and was reimbursed by Trump’s business empire.
Prosecutors said the McDougal payment violated federal law against corporate campaign contributions, while the money that went to Daniels exceeded the $2,700 limit on campaign donations.
Also, campaign contributions must be reported under law, and the two hush-money payments were not disclosed.
Shortly after Cohen’s sentencing, federal authorities announced a deal not to prosecute the National Enquirer’s parent, American Media Inc.