| BestBefore1984 |
12-12-2018 03:36 PM |
Cohen gets 3 years, says Trump's 'dirty deeds' led him to 'choose darkness'
The Trump Train continues to move, albeit at a slower pace and one that rides on unstable rails. As the dominoes continue to fall, one after the other, the caravan is closer to reaching its inevitable cliff with no rails to save it.
“It's just beginning,”
Quote:
An emotional Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, was sentenced Wednesday to 3 years behind bars for what a Manhattan federal court judge called a “veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct,” including making secret payments to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump, lying to Congress about the president’s business dealings with Russia, and failing to report millions of dollars in income.
Judge William Pauley found Cohen, 52, deserved “a significant term of imprisonment” for crimes that were driven by “personal greed and ambition.”
Cohen appeared to get choked up as he pleaded with the judge for mercy. He told Pauley he was taking “full responsibility” for his actions — but laid much of the blame at the feet of the former boss he once said he'd take a bullet for.
“I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen that I deeply admired," Cohen told the judge, saying his blind loyalty to Trump led him to choose “darkness over light.”
He noted that Trump had blasted him as being weak on Twitter. “It was correct but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds," Cohen said.
He appeared to tear up as he apologized to his family and to the people of the United States.
“I am truly sorry and I promise I will be better," he said.
One of the charges Cohen pleaded guilty to, lying to Congress about his dealings concerning a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the Trump campaign's potential collusion with Russia in the 2016 election. The other eight - involving tax evasion, lying to financial institutions and violating campaign finance laws by hiding payments to a porn star and a Playboy Playmate who claimed they had affairs with were Trump - were brought by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Roos urged the judge to hand down a stiff sentence against Cohen, whose crimes showed a "pattern of deceit, brazenness and greed." He also said he'd failed to completely cooperate with investigators.
A prosecutor with the Special Counsel's Office, Jeannie Rhee, struck a kinder tone, and told the judge that Cohen had "provided consistent and credible information about core Russia-related issues under investigation" by their office. She did not elaborate. A sentencing memo filed by Mueller’s office said Cohen had provided federal investigators with information about his contacts with people connected to Trump and the White House.
Cohen lawyer Guy Petrillo argued his client deserved a break for having stood up to the president.
"He came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country," Petrillo told the judge, according to NBC New York.
He argued in court papers that Cohen should be spared jail time, while prosecutors said he should get a little less than the approximately five years called for by federal sentencing guidelines.
Pauley sentenced him to a total of 36 months behind bars, and three years of post-release supervision. The judge added a $50,000 fine and said Cohen must turn himself in on March 6.
The judge said Cohen deserved some credit for his decision over the summer to admit guilt and cooperate in the Russia probe, but his assistance "does not wipe the slate clean."
"Somewhere along the way Mr. Cohen appears to have lost his moral compass," the judge said. "As a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better."
Cohen's daughter broke down in tears after the judge handed down his sentence, and was comforted by her glum looking father.
Cohen pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 to lying to Congress in an attempt to cover up efforts to build the Moscow tower.
After the sentencing, Cohen's former lawyer, Lanny Davis, promised that his client would release everything he knows about the president once Mueller completes his investigation.
“That includes any appropriate congressional committee interested in the search for truth and the difference between facts and lies. Mr. Trumps repeated lies cannot contradict stubborn facts,” Davis said in a statement.
Davis later in a phone interview compared Cohen to Richard Nixon's former White House Counsel John Dean, who helped investigators unravel the Watergate cover-up.
“It's just beginning,” he told NBC News.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...-lying-n946956 |
