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Michael D. Cohen, former lawyer and mediator of President Trump, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison. He told a judge that he had initially admired the sense of Mr. Trump's business, but ended up in a position where:
The prison sentence was for what the judge described as "true trash "of crimes. In particular, they arranged secret payments for two women who claimed to have business dealings with Mr. Trump, tax evasion, bank misrepresentation and a lie in Congress.
The prison is a breathtaking fall for Mr. Cohen, a man. who left the sordid world where he ran a fleet of taxis and practiced personal injury law to serve as a well-paid repairman to Mr. Trump's real estate company.
Here are our conclusions from the case.
A new strategy may not have hurt
From the beginning, Mr. Cohen followed a risky and unusual legal strategy. He tried to cooperate with prosecutors in an attempt to lenient, but he wanted to do so on his own terms, refusing to discuss many topics.
He refused to sign a comprehensive cooperation agreement like the one that most people sign when they agree to testify against it. their former partners in crime. This kind of agreement would have forced Mr. Cohen to admit all the crimes that he allegedly committed and to provide all the details that he knew about the crimes of others.
He explained when determining his sentence that he had done so to quickly end his legal ordeal. and to spare his family the brilliance of advertising over the years that he would have spent testifying in other cases, while awaiting a final decision regarding his fate. "I do not need a cooperation agreement to get it right," he said.
But Manhattan federal prosecutors said his refusal to cooperate made it impossible to verify his criminal background and the quality of his testimony. it would be. Deciding that they were deceiving and greedy, they recommended to the judge in a scathing note that Mr. Cohen be sentenced to a substantial sentence of about four years in prison.
Robert S. Mueller III, Special Council to Investigate Russia's Interference in the 2016 Election and the Trump Campaign Was Involved, Presented a More Positive Evaluation of Mr. Cohen's Co-operation with his office, claiming that he had met with prosecutors at this location seven times and had "made considerable efforts to assist" their investigation.
The conviction began Wednesday morning, it was unclear how Judge William H. Pauley III would look. He finally sentenced to three years in prison, more than what Mr. Cohen's lawyers had wanted, but less than what the prosecutors had requested. The judge said that cooperation, even if it was not the product of a formal agreement, should be encouraged when it helped to advance a criminal investigation.
We could hear Cohen again
. Court documents previously submitted to Mr. Cohen's conviction describes some of the information he provided to Mr. Mueller's office. The newspapers claim that the information provided by Mr. Cohen was "credible and consistent with other evidence obtained" by the special advocate and "was helpful in four important ways".
Mr. Mueller's office stated in court documents, among other things, that Mr. Cohen stated that an unnamed Russian had offered him "government-level" synergy between Russia's campaign and M's campaign. Trump in November 2015, several months earlier than other detailed approaches in prosecutor-initiated indictments.
Although the court documents provided little detail about the information it provided on condition that it becomes clear that all or part of this material could very well eventually surface in the not too distant future. . This could lead to one of the criminal cases scheduled in the coming months or to a report that Mr. Mueller should produce at the conclusion of his investigation.
The case is over – but not really
. M. Cohen's three-year prison sentence appears to mark the end of the federal government's case against him, but as Yogi Berra claimed, "It's not over before it's over" .
To begin, the investigation the charges against Mr. Cohen and his plea of guilty are now centered on Mr. Trump's family real estate company and on the question of whether several officers of this office were able to know the existence of hidden money payments or have played a role.
Some of the information provided by Mr. Cohen to prosecutors has intensified this investigation, one informant said.
In addition, Mr. Cohen stated that he had paid the hidden money under the orders of Mr. Trump, and even According to the prevailing view at the Department of Justice, the President in exercise can not be charged. Manhattan attorneys could still consider suing Trump after he leaves office. It is also possible that they can ask for his testimony while he is still president if the investigation continues to bear on the question of whether anyone else was able to play a role in the crimes, said the person informed about it.
"Little to admire"
The true nature of Mr. Cohen's relationship with Mr. Trump is hard to decipher in the midst of the blizzard surrounding news reports, court documents, presidential tweets and commentaries defense lawyers for both men.
FBI raided Mr. Cohen's offices, Mr. Trump downplayed Mr. Cohen's importance to his company before he became president, thereby belittling his role and calling him "low". And Mr. Cohen, who once exchanged his relationship boasted of taking a ball for him, turned against his 10-year-old boss, implicating him notably in the hidden money scandal.
But when Mr. Cohen addressed the judge before his conviction, he made his first detailed comments on President Trump's record since he pleaded guilty. Although Mr. Trump accused Mr. Cohen of being essentially a traitor, it was Mr. Cohen who spoke as a man not only betrayed, but also fooled.
"I live in a personal and mental incarceration since the fateful day The day I accepted the offer to work for a famous real estate mogul whose admirable business acumen I admired," said Mr. Cohen to the judge. "In fact, I now know that there is little to admire."
He said to be blamed for the conduct that brought him before the judge. "I was weak for not having the strength to question and refuse his demands," he said about Mr. Trump.
million. Cohen seemed almost emboldened as he continued to speak openly about the man he had said to have served blindly.
"Your Honor, it may seem hard to believe, but it is one of the most significant days of my life today," he said. . "Ironically, it is today that I regain my freedom as you sit on the bench and contemplate my fate."
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