Michael Cohen’s Lawyers Ask for No Prison Time After Plea The request came in a late-night memorandum ahead of his sentencing hearing and cited his cooperation with prosecutorsBy Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Rebecca Ballhaus
https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-cohens-lawyers-ask-for-no-prison-time-after-plea-
Lawyers for Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, asked a federal judge in a memorandum filed late Friday night to impose no prison time for Mr. Cohen at his scheduled sentencing later this month, citing Mr. Cohen’s contrition and his cooperation with law enforcement.
In their plea for leniency, Mr. Cohen’s lawyers said Mr. Cohen’s decision to cooperate with investigators reflected his “personal resolve, notwithstanding past errors, to re-point his internal compass true north toward a productive, ethical and thoroughly law abiding life.”
The memo stressed the “weighty and fraught” decision by Mr. Cohen to break with his longtime former boss, who the filing noted has repeatedly attacked the special-counsel investigation into his associates as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” Mr. Cohen, the lawyers said, “could have fought the government and continued to hold to the party line, positioning himself perhaps for a pardon.”
“In the circumstances of this case, at this time, in this climate, Michael’s decision to cooperate required and requires singular determination and personal conviction,” the lawyers wrote.
The filing came a day after Mr. Cohen, now 52 years old, pleaded guilty to one count brought by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, in which he admitted lying to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
In August, Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to eight counts, including five counts of tax fraud, one count of making false statements to a bank, and two campaign-finance violations related to hush-money payments to two women who said they had sexual encounters with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen told the court that Mr. Trump ordered him to arrange the payments, which the president has denied.
In the sentencing memo, the lawyers said Mr. Cohen violated campaign-finance laws out of “fierce loyalty” to his former boss and to Mr. Trump’s sole benefit, and said Mr. Cohen “regrets that his vigor in promoting [the president’s] interests in the heat of political battle led him to abandon good judgment and cross legal lines.”
The lawyers included dozens of letters of support from Mr. Cohen’s friends and family and highlighted Mr. Cohen’s concerns about the “media glare and intrusions on all of them.”
Mr. Cohen is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12 by Judge William Pauley III, who heard his August plea. His lawyers said Thursday they would ask the judge to include a new false-statement charge.
His lawyers said in the sentencing memo that Mr. Cohen had opted not to sign a formal cooperation agreement with the government so as not to delay his sentencing, noting his “necessity, at age 52, to begin his life virtually anew, including developing new means to support his family.” The lawyers said he decided to cooperate with investigators before he was charged.
Since his August plea, Mr. Cohen has been assisting federal prosecutors from both Mr. Mueller’s office and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office. He has also been assisting the New York attorney general’s office with its continuing investigation into the Donald J. Trump Foundation, as well as with a separate open inquiry that wasn’t named. CONTINUE AT SITE
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