The personal lawyer to the President of the United States has just been sentenced to prison.
Despite what top Republican leadership says, this is not something that happens every day to every president.
THE CRIMES
In case you haven’t been following the case, Michael Cohen plead guilty in August to multiple counts of fraud and campaign finance violations, confessing he paid hush money to Donald Trump‘s former mistresses to help him win the election.
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Moreover, he revealed this was done at the direction of then-candidate Trump, a charge the Southern District of New York repeated in their sentencing memo — officially making the POTUS an unindicted co-conspirator.
The “fixer” also became a cooperating witness in the Russia investigation, corroborating the bombshell last week that his boss had been working with Russia to get his Trump Tower built in Moscow all the way through the election and blatantly lying to the American public about his intentions.
Cohen asked for ZERO jail time (ha!) in exchange for his cooperation and even cited the case of rapper DMX as an example of someone who got off light on criminal charges. Really!
In his final statement to the court before the sentence was passed, Cohen blamed “blind loyalty” to Trump for his life of crime, saying:
“It was my blind loyalty to this man that led me to take a path of darkness instead of light. I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”
[Quick reminder, he’s talking about President Donald Trump, an unindicted co-conspirator in these crimes.]
However, SDNY prosecutors said he had NOT been as forthcoming with them as he had with Robert Mueller on that whole Russian conspiracy and obstruction case.
Maybe he does want to protect his country, as he attests, but not at the expense of telling prosecutors ALL his financial crimes?
They asked for only the slightest leniency on charges which could have gotten him 4-6 years.
THE SENTENCE
Apparently the judge agreed — Cohen has been sentenced to THREE YEARS in federal prison.
Some mercy — but not absolute.
In theory Trump, who has said criminals flipping on bigger criminals in exchange for lighter sentences “ought to be illegal,” should be happy with that.
LOLz, OK probably not. Since this probably all means he’s going to prison after he gets out of office.
U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III ruled Cohen’s cooperation in the federal investigation, helpful though it may be, did not “wipe the slate clean” after years of participating in what he called a “smorgasbord of criminal conduct.”
Cohen will begin serving his sentence on March 6 — at which time unindicted co-conspirator Donald Trump will have been president for two years, one month, and 14 days.
As to whether a sitting president can be indicted for crimes, well… the jury is still out on that.
But if he can’t… wouldn’t that make him above the law? Especially if the crime helped assure he was elected in the first place??
We mean, if not what’s to stop a candidate from paying a hitman to whack their political opponent — and if they can cover it up until after they’re sworn in they still get to be President??
What do YOU think??
[Image via CBS/Dennis Van Tine/Future Image/WENN.]
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