President Donald Trump’s former consigliere Michael Cohen arrived at a federal prison about 70 miles north of New York City on Monday. Cohen will begin serving a three-year sentence for tax crimes and violations of campaign finance laws in connection with a payment to a former adult film star who had an affair with Trump.
Cohen was surrounded by reporters and onlookers as he left his Manhattan apartment on Monday. He said he hoped a new president will be elected by the time he is released from prison.
“I hope that when I rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in a place without xenophobia, injustice and lies at the helm of our country,” he said, reading from prepared remarks, according to Yahoo News.
Over the last three months Cohen and his lawyers offered his whistleblower services to prosecutors in the southern district of New York. But he was repeatedly rejected.
Cohen and his lawyers told prosecutors he had insider information about Trump’s business dealings. But Cohen was already convicted of federal crimes, including lying to Congress, so prosecutors politely declined.
As the Monday deadline drew near for Cohen to report to prison, his lawyers saw one last chance for prosecutors to reduce his prison sentence.
Davis begged prosecutors for a meeting with Cohen in mid-March. But that door was slammed in his face.
“Why not see him?” Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis asked the Associated Press. “What’s the downside? He’s about to go to prison.”
Cohen remains the only central figure in Trump’s inner circle to be convicted in the Stormy Daniels scandal involving hush money.
“How come I’m the one that’s going to prison? I’m not the one that slept with the porn star,” Cohen told the New Yorker in April.
Trump has denied having an illicit affair with Daniels or any other loose woman – even though he agreed to pay hush money to his accusers.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
