NEW YORK: Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, was sentenced to a total of three years in prison on Wednesday for his role in making illegal hush-money payments to women to help Trump’s 2016 election campaign and lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Russia.
US District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan sentenced Cohen to 36 months for the payments, which violated campaign finance law, and to two months for the false statements to Congress. The two terms will run simultaneously. The judge set March 6 for Cohen’s voluntary surrender.
Cohen pleaded guilty to the campaign finance charge in August and to making false statements in November. As part of the sentence, the judge ordered Cohen to forfeit $500,000 and pay restitution of nearly $1.4 million for the campaign finance law violations.
Cohen, 52, had walked into court on Wednesday morning with his wife, son and daughter, amid a crowd of photographers and reporters.
The sentencing capped the stunning about-face of a lawyer who once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump but has now directly implicated the president in criminal conduct. The three-year sentence imposed by the judge was a modest reduction from the four to five years recommended under federal guidelines, but still underscored the seriousness of the charges.
“While Mr. Cohen pledges to help in further investigations that is not something the court can consider now,” Pauley said.
Federal prosecutors in New York charged that Cohen, just before the November 2016 election, paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 and helped arrange a $150,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal so the women would keep quiet about their past relationships with Trump, who is married. Trump denies having the affairs.
Prosecutors have said the payments violated campaign finance laws. Cohen told prosecutors the payments were directed by Trump, implicating the president in a possible campaign finance law violation.
Federal law requires that the contribution of “anything of value” to a campaign must be disclosed, and an individual donation cannot exceed $2,700.
“It was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light,” Cohen told the judge during the sentencing hearing.
“I felt it was my duty to cover up his own dirty deeds,” Cohen said, referring to Trump.
Cohen was sentenced on the separate charge of lying to Congress brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election and possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and Moscow. Cohen pleaded guilty to that charge last month.
“He came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in the country,” one of Cohen’s lawyers, Guy Petrillo, told the court on Wednesday, arguing for leniency. Cohen cooperated knowing “the president might shut down” Mueller’s investigation, Petrillo said.
Trump has denied any collusion with Russia and has accused Mueller’s team of pressuring his former aides to lie about him, his campaign and his business dealings. Russia has denied US allegations of interfering in the election to help Trump.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Trump denied the payments were campaign contributions. “If it were, it’s only civil, and even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did,” Trump said.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has argued the hush payments cannot be considered campaign finance violations because they were made to protect Trump’s reputation and would have been made even if he had not been a presidential candidate.
In his guilty plea to Mueller’s charge, Cohen admitted he lied to Congress about the timeline for discussions about plans for real estate businessman Trump’s proposed skyscraper in Moscow. The project was never built.
Cohen said in written testimony to two congressional committees that the talks ended in January 2016, before the first electoral contests to select the Republican presidential nominee, when they actually continued until June 2016 after Trump clinched the Republican nomination.
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Trump ex-lawyer Cohen sentenced to 3 years prison on campaign charge
Trump ex-lawyer Cohen sentenced to 3 years prison on campaign charge
- Cohen received 36 months for the payments and two months for the false statements to Congress
- ‘It was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light’
Budget impasse shuts down US Department of Homeland Security
- Thousands of government workers, from airport security agents to disaster relief officials, will either be furloughed or forced to work without pay
WASHINGTON: The Department of Homeland Security entered a partial shutdown Saturday as US lawmakers fight over funding the agency overseeing much of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Thousands of government workers, from airport security agents to disaster relief officials, will either be furloughed or forced to work without pay until funding is agreed upon by Congress.
At the center of the budget dispute is the department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose agents killed two US citizens amid sweeping raids and mass protests in Minneapolis.
Democrats oppose any new funding for DHS until major changes are implemented over how ICE conducts its operations.
In particular, they have demanded curtailed patrols, a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks during operations and the requirement that they obtain a judicial warrant to enter private property.
“Donald Trump and Republicans have decided that they have zero interest in getting ICE under control,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday.
“Dramatic changes are needed,” Jeffries told a news conference. “Absent that, Republicans have decided to shut down parts of the federal government.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt put the blame on the opposition, telling Fox News that “Democrats are barreling our government toward another shutdown for political and partisan reasons.”
But while DHS faces a shutdown, ICE itself will remain operational, under funds approved in last year’s government spending bill.
Senator John Fetterman pushed against his fellow Democrats, saying: “This shutdown literally has zero impact on ICE.”
The primary impact would land on other agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which oversees emergency response to natural disasters.
The Transportation Security Administration, which runs airport safety, warned on X that a prolonged shutdown could result in longer wait times and canceled flights.
Negotiations stalled
The shutdown would be the third of Trump’s second term, including a record 43-day government closure last October and November.
The government just reopened from a smaller, four-day partial shutdown earlier this month, also over DHS funding.
Even if all 53 Republican senators vote to fund DHS, Senate rules require support from 60 of the body’s 100 members to advance the budget bill, meaning several Democrats would need to get on board.
In response to the Democrats’ demands, the White House said it was ready to negotiate over immigration enforcement policy.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called it “an extremely serious offer,” but warned Democrats are “never going to get their full wish list.”
Some concessions were made during the previous shutdown amid Democratic pressure and national outcry after federal agents shot and killed Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked with military veterans, in Minneapolis last month.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal agents in the city would wear body cameras “effective immediately” in a move that would be later “expanded nationwide.”
The Senate went into recess for a week starting Thursday, but senators could be called back to Washington in case of a rapid leap in negotiations.
For the moment, however, talks between the White House and Democrats appear to be at a standstill.
Thousands of government workers, from airport security agents to disaster relief officials, will either be furloughed or forced to work without pay until funding is agreed upon by Congress.
At the center of the budget dispute is the department’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose agents killed two US citizens amid sweeping raids and mass protests in Minneapolis.
Democrats oppose any new funding for DHS until major changes are implemented over how ICE conducts its operations.
In particular, they have demanded curtailed patrols, a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks during operations and the requirement that they obtain a judicial warrant to enter private property.
“Donald Trump and Republicans have decided that they have zero interest in getting ICE under control,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday.
“Dramatic changes are needed,” Jeffries told a news conference. “Absent that, Republicans have decided to shut down parts of the federal government.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt put the blame on the opposition, telling Fox News that “Democrats are barreling our government toward another shutdown for political and partisan reasons.”
But while DHS faces a shutdown, ICE itself will remain operational, under funds approved in last year’s government spending bill.
Senator John Fetterman pushed against his fellow Democrats, saying: “This shutdown literally has zero impact on ICE.”
The primary impact would land on other agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which oversees emergency response to natural disasters.
The Transportation Security Administration, which runs airport safety, warned on X that a prolonged shutdown could result in longer wait times and canceled flights.
Negotiations stalled
The shutdown would be the third of Trump’s second term, including a record 43-day government closure last October and November.
The government just reopened from a smaller, four-day partial shutdown earlier this month, also over DHS funding.
Even if all 53 Republican senators vote to fund DHS, Senate rules require support from 60 of the body’s 100 members to advance the budget bill, meaning several Democrats would need to get on board.
In response to the Democrats’ demands, the White House said it was ready to negotiate over immigration enforcement policy.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called it “an extremely serious offer,” but warned Democrats are “never going to get their full wish list.”
Some concessions were made during the previous shutdown amid Democratic pressure and national outcry after federal agents shot and killed Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked with military veterans, in Minneapolis last month.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal agents in the city would wear body cameras “effective immediately” in a move that would be later “expanded nationwide.”
The Senate went into recess for a week starting Thursday, but senators could be called back to Washington in case of a rapid leap in negotiations.
For the moment, however, talks between the White House and Democrats appear to be at a standstill.
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