Cohen pleaded guilty in August to two campaign finance violations tied to payments he had made or orchestrated to women during the campaign to stay silent about alleged sexual encounters with Trump, five counts of tax fraud and one count of making false statements to a bank.
In that filing, prosecutors say that Cohen "acted in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump in executing the payments.
Cohen also pleaded guilty last month to a charge from Mueller's office of lying to Congress about how long discussions involving a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow had extended into the 2016 campaign.
He has asked for no prison time, and his lawyers argued in a court filing that he could have "continued to hold the party line, positioning himself perhaps for a pardon or clemency," but instead "he took personal responsibility for his own wrongdoing and contributed, and is prepared to continue to contribute, to an investigation that he views as thoroughly legitimate and vital."
Cohen, his lawyers said, should be commended for his cooperation "in the context of this raw, full-bore attack by the most powerful person in the United States."
In addition to the disclosures from the US Attorney's office in Manhattan about Trump's participation in the payments to silence women, Mueller also supplied fresh revelations on the President on Friday, disclosing new information on a set of efforts to communicate between Trump, his associates and the Russian government.
In one instance, prosecutors said, Cohen told the special counsel he had consulted with Trump about his interest in contacting the Russian government before Cohen suggested in a radio interview in September 2015 that Trump meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during Putin's visit to New York that fall.
Cohen had previously claimed his comments on air were spontaneous, the court papers said, but he admitted to prosecutors that they came about after his discussion with Trump.
Cohen's sentencing underscores the scope and breadth Mueller's probe has taken as it's investigated the ties between Russia and Trump's team, an examination that often has consumed the President for the first half of his term.
Several senior Trump officials have pleaded guilty in the special counsel's investigation, including Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, but none were as close to the President for as long as Cohen.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
No comments:
Post a Comment