US Judge Sentences Ex-Trump Lawyer Cohen To 3 Years In Prison

NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2018) A US Federal judge sentenced former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to 36 months in prison for hush payments to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign and for lying to Congress about Trump Tower talks with Russia, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court.

After the three-year imprisonment, the former Trump lawyer will be under supervised release for another three years. The judge also sentenced Cohen to two months for lying to Congress to be served concurrently, as well as ordered Cohen to pay nearly $2 million in financial penalties for his offenses.

"My weakness could be characterized as a blind loyalty to Donald Trump," Cohen said during the proceedings referring to recent tweets made by Trump in which the president called him weak.

Last month, Cohen reached a plea deal with US federal prosecutors requiring him to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team on the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election. Last week, prosecutors recommended that Cohen be sentenced to 51 to 63 months.

Cohen's lawyer Guy Petrillo called on the judge to be compassionate taking into account the remarkable nature and significance of the defendant's cooperation with prosecutors against the most powerful man in the country - the US president. Cohen's defense team had asked for no jail time citing the cooperation.

Cohen broke down in tears during Wednesday's proceedings, saying he is "painfully aware" of his actions and asked for mercy before US District Judge William Pauley.

The judge said that Cohen deserved credit for cooperating in the Trump-Russia probe. However, the judge also said that as a lawyer the defendant should have understood the consequences of his actions and somewhere along the way Cohen had "lost his moral compass."

Cohen left the courthouse with his family without any interaction with the press. When asked if they were happy about the decision, Petrillo said "not at all."

In a series of tweets earlier this month, Trump called Cohen a "weak person" who is making up stories to get lesser prison time. The US president also said the project in Moscow was never a secret and noted that the tower has never been built.

Russia has repeatedly denied charges of meddling in the vote and helping Trump to win the race against his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Trump has also denied allegations of collusion and has denounced Mueller's Russia investigation as a "witch hunt."