San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Former top Trump lawyer seeks leniency from judge
NEW YORK — Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer who has twice pleaded guilty to crimes that have implicated Trump in illegal or questionable conduct, asked a federal judge that he be allowed to avoid prison when he is sentenced in less than two weeks. In a deeply personal memorandum that expressed Cohen’s contrition and shame and portrayed him as a man whose personal and professional lives had been shattered, his lawyers cited his cooperation with the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, whose legitimacy is regularly denounced by the president.
“In the context of this raw, full-bore attack by the most powerful person in the United States, Michael, formerly a confidante and adviser to Mr. Trump, resolved to cooperate, and voluntarily took the first steps toward doing so even before he was charged,” the lawyers wrote in court papers filed late Friday.
Arguing that Cohen could have fought the government, “positioning himself perhaps for a pardon or clemency,” the lawyers said he instead took personal responsibility for his wrongdoing “and is prepared to continue to contribute to an investigation that he views as thoroughly legitimate and vital.”
The lawyers, Guy Petrillo and Amy Lester, submitted their memo one day after Cohen entered a surprise guilty plea in federal court in Manhattan to a charge of lying to Congress in a case filed by Mueller, investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential ties to Trump’s campaign. In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and financial crimes in a case brought by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. In that plea, Cohen implicated Trump in hush-money payments to two women during the 2016 campaign to conceal affairs they said they had with Trump.
Cohen, 52, is to be sentenced by Judge William Pauley on Dec. 12 on the charges in both cases. The government is also expected to file a sentencing memo.
The Cohen memo offered no new revelations about alleged misconduct involving the president, but it shed new light on Cohen’s role in the various investigations being conducted into Trump and his inner circle.
He has met seven times with Mueller’s prosecutors — the first time on Aug. 7, two weeks before Cohen entered his first guilty plea — and he intends to keep making himself available when needed for additional questioning, the memo said.
The memo noted that Mueller’s office is expected to provide the judge with an assessment of Cohen’s cooperation, and that federal prosecutors in Manhattan are to join in presenting Cohen’s assistance as a factor for the judge to consider.