U.S. federal judge William H. Pauley II sentenced Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal attorney and fixer, in late November 2019 to three years in prison for tax evasion, making false statements to a bank, and campaign finance violations.
Cohen pleaded guilty to, among other things, paying film star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal to remain silent during the 2016 Presidential Election about their affairs with Trump.
Cohen was found guilty in a separate prosecution brought by the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to one count of making false statements to the U.S. Congress. He was sentenced in that case to a two-month concurrent sentence.
In return, Cohen agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling with the Trump campaign during the election campaign.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/12/politics/michael-cohen-sentencing/index.html
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michael-cohen-former-trump-attorney-completes-prison-sentence
The Mueller investigation led to federal prison sentences for the following Trump associates:
SEE PAUL MANAFORT,
SEE ROGER STONE,
SEE RICK GATES,
SEE MICHAEL FLYNN,
SEE GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS,
SEE RICHARD PINEDO,
SEE ALEX VAN DER ZWANN,
Cohen told a packed Manhattan courtroom on the day he was sentenced that he took responsibility for his actions and attributed his criminal activities to a misguided loyalty to Trump.
Cohen once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump.
CNN reported that Judge Pauley “criticized Cohen for his crimes, his lies and his willingness to commit both in his capacity as an attorney.”
“Our democratic institutions depend on the honesty of our citizenry in dealing with the government,” Pauley said.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/12/politics/michael-cohen-sentencing/index.html
Cohen said he had once considered it “my duty to cover up his (Trump’s) dirty deeds.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/12/politics/michael-cohen-sentencing/index.html
Once Cohen began cooperating with the government, he revealed Trump as someone who should not be in the White House but in the big house (rim shot).
“Donald Trump,” Cohen said in a prepared statement before the House Oversight Committee, “is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great. He had no desire or intention to lead this nation — only to market himself and to build his wealth and power. Mr. Trump would often say, this campaign was going to be the ‘greatest infomercial in political history.'”
In his testimony, Cohen also called Trump “a racist,” “a conman,” and “a cheat.”
“I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience,” Cohen said. “I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat.”
This is probably a good time to point out that Cohen knows more about Trump than perhaps anyone else.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, an inveterate liar, called Cohen a “disgraced felon.”
“It’s laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies,” she said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/politics/michael-cohen-trump-congress.html
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as we establish in this website, is hardly the one to be casting aspersions on anyone’s character.
There are two differences between the slavish support of Donald Trump by Cohen and the slavish support of Donald Trump by Sanders.
One hasn’t been convicted. Yet.
Sanders is still aiding and abetting Trump in his effort to destroy democracy.
SEE SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS,
Cohen served as Trump’s attorney from 2006 to 2018.
ABC News reported that Cohen was sometimes called “Tom,” a reference to Tom Hagen, the consigliere to crime boss Vito Corleone in the movie Godfather, who was as fiercely loyal to his crime boss as Cohen was to his.
“It means that if somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn’t like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump’s benefit,” Cohen said.
“If you do something wrong, I’m going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished.”
When Daily Beast reporter Tim Mak inquired about Trump’s first wife Ivana saying she had been raped by Trump – a statement she later recanted — Cohen responded, “I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-cohen-trump-personal-lawyer/
It’s difficult to imagine how such a sweet guy like Michael Cohen ever ended up working for Trump.
Time magazine mentioned that Trump had without any evidence called President Barack Obama a “terrible student.” When Trump then announced he was running for president, Cohen sent letters to Trump’s alma maters that threatened legal action if any of his academic records became public.
In his testimony to Congress, Cohen said:
“When I say con man, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores,” Cohen said. “The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr. Trump in 2011 had strongly criticized President Obama for not releasing his grades.”
Time magazine wrote that Trump’s is most boastful when it comes to concealing his greatest failures.
“Trump’s desire to conceal his academic records runs counter to his habit of boasting about his intelligence and success as a student,” it said.
The magazine included the following quotes from Trump.
“I went to the Wharton School of Business. I’m, like, a really smart person,” he said in a speech in July 2015.
“I went to an Ivy League school. I’m very highly educated. I know words, I have the best words,” he said later that year.
“You know, people don’t understand. I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student,” he said in 2017. “I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person.”
https://time.com/5540152/donald-trump-michael-cohen-academic-records/
If Trump is so smart, why does he sound like Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rainman?
Why doesn’t Trump release his academic records to reveal how smart he is?
Why don’t other smart people say Trump is smart?
Trump would be better served adhering to words attributed to Abraham Lincoln, who really was a smart person.
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
