President Trump’s long-time consigliere Michael Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison on Wednesday. A federal judge in New York sentenced Cohen after he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of income tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations.
Cohen cooperated fully with special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia collusion probe.
U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley said Cohen’s cooperation with Mueller and federal prosecutors doesn’t “wipe the slate clean” of all his crimes.
Cohen, 52, is accused of using his connections to the President to enrich himself and his companies. He reportedly took out millions of dollars in loans using false information on loan documents.
Cohen also admitted lying to Congress, influencing an election, and arranging hush money payments to women, including a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
Daniels, an adult film star who claimed she slept with Trump in 2006, is suing Trump for $1 million. A judge on Tuesday ordered her to pay Trump $263,000 in attorney’s fees and $1,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit.
Cohen will be required to turn himself in to authorities on March 6 to begin serving his sentence. He must forfeit $500,000 in cash and pay $1.4 million in restitution and $50,000 in fines, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Muller had recommended no prison time for Cohen who cooperated with prosecutors in the hopes of staying out of prison. But the judge was not sympathetic.
“Cohen plead guilty to a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct,” Judge Pauley said before handing down his sentence. Pauley added that, as an attorney, Cohen should have known better.”
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