Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of US President Donald Trump, has been sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including campaign finance violations, lying to Congress, tax evasion, and bank fraud.
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But ‘campaign finance violations’ is a very boring way of stating the plain truth of the matter. In the lead-up to the 2016 election, Cohen illegally bought the silence of two women who alleged they had extramarital affairs with Trump – and Cohen said he did so at Trump’s behest.
Speaking before court, Cohen said “the president tweeted a statement calling me weak, and he was correct — but for a much different reason.
“Time and again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than listen to my own voice.”
Trump has denied the affairs but has acknowledged the payments, calling them personal transactions which had nought to do with his presidential campaign. After the charges were laid, Trump also went to great lengths to distance himself from the guy who was his ‘fixer’ for over a decade.
If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
In light of those crimes, and Cohen’s apparent recognition that he was doing really, really shady stuff at the behest of the man who’d become president, you may be wondering why he got away with such a seemingly lenient sentence.
The answer is that Cohen appears to be divulging a lot of interesting tidbits from the inner workings of the Trump campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the campaign’s potential links to Russia, said Cohen had been “useful”, “credible” and “consistent” with the evidence he has offered up.
Still, Judge William Pauley said “His cooperation does not wipe the slate clean.”
Cohen is slated to report for imprisonment in March 2019.
