Prosecutors refuse a final meeting with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

Ex-Trump attorney set to go to prison Monday

WASHINGTON — As the time ticked down toward his deadline to report to prison, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen lost the interest of the one group of people who could help him out: the federal prosecutors he hoped would ask a judge to shorten his sentence.

Since mid-March, prosecutors in New York have rebuffed Cohen’s repeated offers to provide more information about alleged wrongdoing by Trump and other people in his orbit, Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis told The Associated Press on Friday.

“Why not see him?” Davis asked. “What’s the downside? He’s about to go to prison.”

Cohen’s legal team reached out to prosecutors in March asking for an opportunity to meet for a “frank discussion” about reducing his sentence, based on his cooperation. That meeting never happened.

Cohen is scheduled to report Monday to a federal prison 70 miles north of New York City to begin serving a three-year sentence for campaign-finance violations, tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to Congress. He told journalists Saturday in Manhattan that he plans to hold a news conference Monday before heading to prison.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment.

Cohen remains the only person charged in a scandal involving hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who threatened to speak up about alleged affairs with Trump.

After pleading guilty in August, Cohen met with Manhattan-based prosecutors multiple times to discuss several issues. He also met with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators several times, culminating with a session just days before the former FBI director turned his report over to the Justice Department.

Still, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in court filings before his sentencing, criticized what it called Cohen’s unwillingness to cooperate fully and be debriefed “on other uncharged criminal conduct, if any, in his past.”

Jonathan Carroll The Associated Press Michael Cohen, right, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, walks down the street with his son Jake after leaving his apartment Saturday in New York. Cohen is scheduled to report to a federal prison Monday.