Convicted tax cheat Stanley Cohen re-pledges allegiance to Hamas

Convicted tax cheat Stanley Cohen re-pledges allegiance to Hamas

Lawyer Stanley Cohen pleaded guilty last spring to federal charges related to his scheme to conceal income through cash transactions elaborately orchestrated to cover his tracks. He also failed to file income tax returns.

See our prior posts:

• Hamas’ attorney, Stanley Cohen, pleads guilty to tax offenses
• Would Stanley Cohen really rather spend 18 mos in prison than dine with a Zionist?
• Masses not exactly rallying around convicted anti-Israel lawyer Stanley Cohen
• More details on tax scheme by anti-Israel attorney Stanley Cohen

We noted before that Cohen was obsessively anti-Israel, so much so that he announced he’d rather serve 18 months in prison than dine with a Zionist.

Cohen may get his wish, as his plea deal calls for an 18-month sentence, though I don’t think the court is bound by that. The sentencing was supposed to take place today, but has been postponed a week because — according to the court docket — two new letters, which are not public, were received.

In typical Cohen fashion, he claimed political persecution by Zionists, and his supporters sang along with his anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.

Because the Zionists made him stock his safe deposit box full of cash, arrange money orders and physical cash transfers to cover his tracks, and fail to file income tax returns — or something.

Those Zionists sure are tricky, aren’t they Stan, they made you do all those illegal things and then caught you and charged you, and even made you admit in open court that the prosecutors could prove their case.

NBC News reported (and quoted me), Terror Suspects’ Lawyer Stanley Cohen Rants Before Prison Sentence:

A Hamas-defending, Israel-slamming Jew, Cohen simultaneously confounds and agitates. He’s known for f-bomb-laced rants against what he calls a “Zionist hijacking” of his religion. He demeans the tax charge to which he pleaded guilty in April as a government attempt “to silence me.” ….

According to federal prosecutors, Cohen failed to report more than $3 million in income….

Cohen has called that investigation a “witch hunt,” driven by American powers who dislike his anti-Israeli views and clients — including Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic organization defined by many in the world as a terrorist group. He asserts he never hid income and only took a plea to avoid mounting an expensive, lengthy defense.

With a puff of graying hair, an unruly beard, a phone he answers personally and — occasionally — a dog sitting in his lap during media interviews, Cohen doesn’t fit the slick image of a high-living tax cheat. But to his critics, that description is entirely apt.

“Stanley Cohen is no victim here. He broke the most basic tax laws, the ones everyone else has to abide by,” said William Jacobson, a professor at Cornell Law School. He has authored several blog posts about Cohen.

“The political angle was raised not by the prosecutors but by Cohen and his supporters in an attempt to excuse clearly illegal conduct,” Jacobson said.

As he prepares for the possibility of prison, Cohen wanted to make sure people remembered, he’s Hamas through and through:

Off to a meeting. For the 327,459th time I support the armed struggle of the Palestinian Resistance- that means Hamas.

— Stanley Cohen (@StanleyCohenLaw) October 20, 2014

He likely will lose his law license, although I have no doubt he and his supporters will think up some reason to try to make an exception for him. So expect more anti-Zionist conspiracy theories once he gets out.

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