Former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen Sentenced to 3 Years
Blames Trump for causing him to “follow a path of darkness rather than light”
Former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years imprisonment Wednesday.
The sentence included charges for lying to Congress, tax evasion, and campaign finance violations.
For ABC News:
Before leveling his sentence, Judge William Pauley said “Cohen pled guilt to a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct” and “lost his moral compass,” adding that “as a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better.”
In addition to his imprisonment, Cohen will have to pay $1.39 million in restitution plus $500,000 in forfeiture for the financial and campaign finance crimes. He will face an additional fine of $50,000 for lying to Congress.
…Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York charged Cohen with eight felony counts in August, including tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, and campaign finance violations. Special counsel Robert Mueller, tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, tacked on an additional count of lying to Congress last month. Cohen pleaded guilty to all nine counts and struck a deal to cooperate with ongoing investigations.
Cohen blamed Trump for causing him to “follow a path of darkness rather than light.” ABC ctd:
Before ruling was issued, Cohen had pleaded for leniency, accusing President Trump – his former boss – of causing him to “follow a path of darkness rather than light” and “cover up his dirty deeds.” Cohen’s attorney, Guy Petrillo, argued that Cohen “came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in the country.”
But while the special counsel’s office appeared to be willing to give Cohen credit for his cooperation, SDNY prosecutors took a harder stance.
In court on Wednesday, Jeannie Rhee, a prosecutor with the Office of the Special Counsel, said Cohen had provided “wide ranging and helpful” information on matters related to the Russia probe while being careful not to inflate the value of that information.
Nicolas Roos, a prosecutor with the Southern District of New York, however, struck a different tone.
Cohen “didn’t come anywhere close to assisting this office in an investigation,” Roos told the court, adding, “the charges portray a pattern of deception, of brazenness and of greed.”
For our previous coverage on this story, see here.
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additional fine of $50,000 for lying to Congress.
When we get caught lying to congress, we pay for it. When congress lies to us,
theywe pay for it. American Justice.“When we get caught lying to congress, we pay for it…”
ONLY if you are not a democrat or a GOPe rat.
Our government has been completely corrupted. We are being ruled, not governed.
The floating ads are back.
Boo.
Hiss.
I don’t mind them as much on the computer but on mobile they make the site unviewable using a standard browser.
Try Firefox Focus…. it blocks everything and the site is clean and easily readable using this browser.
Is it a smartphone browser?
As for the ads: if LI is going to an ads-get-in-your-way format, it may be time to set up, at the very least, no ads for supporters. Some sites do that.
The only charges of national significance are the alleged campaign finance violations. Reports about l’affaire Cohen tend to mix the charges all together, thus leaving the vague impression that the campaign finance violations are every bit as concrete as the tax evasions and lies to Congress. But there’s no real indication that that’s the case.
. . . a prosecutor with the Office of the Special Counsel, said Cohen had provided “wide ranging and helpful” information on matters related to the Russia probe while being careful not to inflate the value of that information.
In other words, he told them some things about the imaginary Russian conspiracy, but the information wasn’t useful. Perhaps he verified that they were busy chasing dead ends. In any event, there’s no sign that any of it pointed to Trumpian crimes. So they still have nothing but liberal fantasies and innuendo.
I am a bit surprised that Trump didn’t manage to find himself a better attorney, though. Cohen sounds like a real piece of work.
The fact that Cohen pleads guilty to a campaign finance crime is no basis for concluding that a crime was committed.
“accusing President Trump – his former boss – of causing him to “follow a path of darkness rather than light” and “cover up his dirty deeds.” ”
“The devil made me do it!” — Geraldine Jones
Yeah, I’m sure Trump ordered Cohen to commit federal crimes to make a non-criminal nuisance go away. That is why people hires attorneys. Really. That’s the way it works. Maybe Cohen got his law degree from Coney Island Law and Dance too (“No admission unless THIS tall=>”).
That should be Coney Island SCHOOL of Las and Dance. Wouldn’t want to offend our annoying resident alumnus.
All this time I was under the impression that the reason you hired legal advisors was to help to keep you from inadvertently breaking the law. Cohen seems to think that his job was to break the law as a proxy for his client.
It might have been a threat of five years jail if he didn’t make the denunciation. Not a tough call if that was the case.
Does the person who wrote that for him work in the USAT SDNY or Mueller’s Merry Band?
Probably Lanny Davis, his attorney
Still spinning for the Clintons
Probably Lanny Davis, his attorney
Still spinning for the Clintons
Rush is again reminding us that there is a multi-million dollar Congressional slush fund whose sole purpose is to pay off women alleging sexual crimes against Congressmen. So far, they have made over 260 payments. Are we going to see over 260 of these hypocrites go to jail too?
When does he get a gig on CNN?
Three years
How does this work? Assuming he behaves while he’s in the Big House, how much time will he serve before he’s eligible for parole?
Should CNN sign him up now to take him off the market so he’ll be available to bash Trump prior to November 2020?
Federal standard is, or at least used to be, one month “good time” for each year served without problems.
Since IANAL, I don’t understand how any of this is possible, since all this seems to have been born of the dossier, FISA abuse, investigation without probable cause, being charged with a crime, etc.
Simple – you are trying to apply an evidentiary standard to not just any Republican, but President Donald J. Trump. There isn’t any evidence and legal hurdle for Trump, he became ready for prosecution on the first Tuesday in November 2016. And there normally will never be any such hurdle which a Democrat will clear to be cleared for prosecution.
An legal critique titled “Ham Sandwich Nation”; that the power of prosecutors is such that they can indict anyone they want. Along with this Cohen case is the Michael Flynn case, where he pleaded guilty just because the prosecutors were threatening to go after his son.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2203713
Thanks for the article. Plain talk for a non-lawyer. I appreciate that. 😉
Don’t you now feel that our blessed deomcracy is better protected. Imagine the President who maybe/possibly fucked and sucked a slut/whore/hooker/girlfriend some ten years ago and didn’t really want it published in the NYTimes, or have to pay excessive blackmail to her. Do I really give a shit or think that important laws were broken or that an immportant trial just concluded. We are all National Enquirer now.
Speaking of which, they accepted SDNY/Mueller’s bribe and are sing what the Feds compose
The “It’s just about sex” defense only works for Democrats.
Voters don’t give a crap about private peccadillos and I’m sure Trump knows that as much as anyone else who was breathing during the Clinton years. So the payoffs to the whores was for other reasons, notwithstanding whatever the proven liar Cohen, or the aptly named “Pecker” have to say.
Oh, P.S. Be careful with the colorful language. We have some sensitive souls on here who might be driven to their crying rooms.
Does no one have the actual judgment and commitment order? It would be interesting to see what the breakdown of time is for each offense.
Cohen’s primary offense was simply being low hanging fruit on the Trump tree. Not many fixers, including the Clinton’s legion of fixers, would survive a partisan SP unscathed. Cohen’s benefactor came from the wrong side of town and doesn’t belong to the right country clubs. I suspect that Cohen’s 3 year sentence is a reflection of not being enough of a rat to satisfy prosecutors.
Rush was saying somewhat the same thing. If Mueller et al had thought that Cohen would be any use as a witness, they’d have likely held off on this.
I don’t see Mueller making any plea for a reduced sentence. I *do* see him stringing Cohen along, getting every single incriminating statement he can out of him (true or false, it makes no difference) until sentencing, then dropping the boom. Mueller does not need testimony, he needs tempting stories for the media and unverifiable accusations for the Democrats in congress to run through impeachment.
I’m willing to bet Pelosi wants to use the phrase “We have to impeach the president in order to determine the seriousness of the charges.”
Good one. I may be forced to use it at some point in the future.
I have one of those really stupid layman’s questions that’s probably going to make Ragspierre and Milhouse rip my head off. The pursuit of knowledge requires some sacrifices.
In allowing Cohen to perform these acts of “darkness not light”, wasn’t the client, Donald Trump, following Cohen’s own legal advice in the process?
Not at all necessarily. T=rump could have been acting explicitly against Cohen’s advice, and Cohen just didn’t have the integrity to deal with it.
Remember, Roy Cohn (mob lawyer) was T-rump’s fixer/attorney/mentor for about a decade or two. It’s entirely likely that Cohn trained Dun Donald in NYC corruption, how to break the law, and how to groom a lawyer to go along with it.
So….no Russian Collusion?
Just checking.
I forgot Lanny Davis is his attorney. Nothing like hiring the other team’s defensive coach to protect you…
Heard Davis a couple times doing his “defense”. Unbelievable. He buried him with his talk about Trump conspiracies, payoffs, hotel deals etc. It was literally a hit job by Mueller and Clinton.