ALL THE PRESIDENT’S HENCHMEN
Cohen cops plea, links Don to payoffs Ex-aide Manafort convicted on 8 raps
The fixer is in.
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, pleaded guilty to a laundry list of eight charges in Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday — including working at Trump’s “direction” to pay off two women who say they had sex with him more than a decade ago.
The stunning development implicates the President in the violation of campaign finance laws by authorizing payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in exchange for their silence about the alleged trysts.
“What [Cohen] did was, he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign, to the candidate and the campaign,” Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami said after the hearing.
Both payments, Cohen admitted, were made “for the principal purpose of influencing” the 2016 presidential election.
The hush deal with McDougal was coordinated with the Trump-boosting tabloid National Enquirer, he added.
Wearing a dark suit and a gold-colored tie, Cohen winked at reporters and signed papers before informing Judge William Pauley of his guilty plea on eight counts related to the campaign finance violations, bank fraud and tax evasion.
Cohen said he had a glass of Glenlivet Scotch on the rocks Monday night, but that he was now sober and fully aware of his actions.
Cohen faces up to 65 years in prison, but federal sentencing guidelines recommend he serve no greater than five years and three months in prison.
The 51-year-old Long Island native walked out of the courthouse on a $500,000 bond and will be sentenced Dec. 12. Throngs of protesters shouted “lock him up!” as Cohen ducked into an SUV and peeled off.
“These are very serious charges and reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty,” Khuzami told reporters outside the courthouse. “For that he’s going to pay a very, very serious price.”
The self-described “fixer,” long considered Trump’s personal pit bull, boasted last year he’d take a bullet for the President.
But Cohen’s loyalty has been tested since April 9, when FBI agents raided his Manhattan office and residences, seizing more than 4 million files.
The investigation into Cohen was referred to the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Cohen is not cooperating with federal authorities as part of his plea deal, but experts said there’s still a chance he could cooperate with Mueller’s investigators, who are looking into possible collu- sion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.
“He would have to show evidence they don’t already have since the Southern District of New York was no doubt consulting with Mueller’s office before this,” Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Illinois specializing in white-collar crimes, told the Daily News.
The April raids sent shock waves through the White House. Gradually, Cohen and Trump distanced themselves from each other through statements in the media as their relationship publicly soured.
Cohen later said his loyalty was to his family and country, leading to speculation that he might cooperate with investigators.
Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis issued a blistering statement after Tuesday’s development.
“Today (Cohen) stood up
and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election,” Davis said. “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now serving as Trump's mouthpiece in the Russia investigation, disputed Davis' claim in a statement of his own.
“There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen,” Giuliani said.
The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice and guidance to the executive branch, has held that a sitting President cannot be indicted.
However, legal experts raised the specter of impeachment.
“The interesting thing is that he said the President committed a crime,” Mariotti said. “The question is: What is the United States Congress going to do to respond to this?”
Cohen's plea came on the same day that a jury in Alexandria, Va., convicted Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort on eight of 18 counts of tax and bank fraud in a case prosecuted by Mueller.
Trump dodged questions from reporters about Cohen after arriving in West Virginia Tuesday evening for a rally.
Giuliani's claim stands in sharp contrast to the allegations outlined in Cohen's plea.
Prosecutors say Cohen submitted bogus invoices to the Trump Organization to be reimbursed for his $130,000 payment to Daniels and $150,000 payment to McDougal.
Cohen said in court the hush payments were done “in coordination” with Trump, potentially opening up the President as well as his namesake business empire to further prosecution.
Daniels claims she had sex with Trump in 2006. Trump denies the affair, but has admitted he reimbursed Cohen for the payment.
The X-rated actress' lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted, “We. Are. Coming. We are going to end this dumpster fire of a presidency one way or another.”
Daniels also reveled in the news. “How ya like me now?!” the porn star tweeted Tuesday.
Khuzami said that in addition to the campaign finance violations, Cohen failed to report more than $4 million in income between 2012 and 2016, including about $2.5 million from interest payments on a personal loan and $1.3 million from his taxi medallion holdings.
Cohen also lied to a bank by failing to disclose more than $14 million in debt in obtaining a $500,000 home equity line of credit to which he wasn't entitled, Khuzami said.
After the April 9 raid, prosecutors said during a hearing that they had been investigating Cohen for months.
Cohen initially argued that much of the material was protected by attorney-client privilege and not fair game for prosecutors — and the President backed him up.
Trump blasted the raid as “a witch hunt,” an assault on attorney-client privilege and a politically motivated attack by biased agents embedded in the FBI.
But a protracted review process overseen by a retired judge ruled that only a small fraction of the items seized in the raid were privileged and off limits.
Cohen played it cool in the days following the raid, chomping on cigars in public and frequenting high-end restaurants across Manhattan with friends.
But, as the investigation heated up, the former fixer began making public statements at odds with Trump's views, and scrubbed mentions of the President from his social media accounts.
Tensions increased after it was revealed that Cohen had secretly recorded Trump talking about McDougal, the former Playboy playmate who also says she had sex with Trump in 2006.
“Inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client — totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,” Trump tweeted July 21. “The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!”
Jens Ohlin, vice dean of the Cornell University Law School, begged to differ.
“Trump is now guilty not only of violating federal campaign finance law but also the federal conspiracy statute,” Ohlin told The News. “If he were anyone else, he'd be indicted right away. But I suspect he'll be listed as an unindicted co-conspirator, and this will clearly be a focus of Mueller's report. Hard to call this a witch hunt now.”