Patterico's Pontifications

12/12/2018

Michael Cohen Sentenced To Three Years

Filed under: General — Dana @ 12:45 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Calling the charges that Cohen pled guilty to a “veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct,” and stating that Cohen had “lost his moral compass,” U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley sentenced Michael Cohen to three years this morning:

Michael Cohen, who as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer once vowed he would “take a bullet” for his boss, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for an array of crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to two women that he says was done at the direction of Trump.

The sentence was in line with what federal prosecutors asked for. Sentencing guidelines called for around four to five years behind bars, and prosecutors asked in court papers that Cohen be given only a slight break. He is ordered to surrender March 6.

Cohen read a statement at the sentencing hearing today:

“Today is the day that I am getting my freedom back.”

“I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen that I deeply admired.”

“I stand before your honor humbly and painfully aware that we are here for one reason.”

“I take full responsibility for each act that I pleaded guilty to,” including those implicating the “President of the United States of America.”

“Today is one of the most meaning days of my life.”

My “weakness was a blind loyalty to Donald Trump.”

“I have chosen this unorthodox path because the sooner that I am sentenced,” the sooner I can return to my family.

“I do not need a cooperation agreement in place to do the right thing.”

He then mentions his family members, by name, and says he brought pain and shame on his family. Mentions his mom, dad, and children, and says to them “I’m sorry.” Long pause.

“The president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world,” Cohen said mockingly, “calling me a rat.”

He said Trump tried to influence the proceedings that “implicate” him.

He apologized again to his family before wrapping up. His voice cracked with apparent emotion, as he apologizes to “the people of the United States” for lying to us.

“You deserve to know the truth and lying to you was unjust.”

Cohen also made a point to respond to President Trump’s accusation that he was weak:

“Recently the President tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”

Cohen had pleaded guilty to a total of nine federal charges, including several counts of tax fraud and campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress and banks.

Cohen has been ordered to voluntarily surrender on March 6, and has been ordered to pay financial penalties (forfeiture of $500,000, restitution of $1.4 million and two separate fines of $50,000 — one for Mueller’s case and another for the SDNY one).

Court reporter Adam Klasfeld, who was in the courtroom, tweeted the hearing as it happened. Read here for those details.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

French Officials: Strasbourg Shooting Was Terrorism

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:43 am



Had this happened in the U.S. under Obama, officials would probably still be calling the motive a mystery:

The shooting at a crowded street market in Strasbourg, France, was an act of terrorism, officials said Wednesday, as the police continued an intensive search for the gunman who killed at least two people and wounded 12 others.

Rémy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, who handles terrorism investigations nationwide, said at a news conference in Strasbourg on Wednesday that witnesses had heard the attacker yell “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, and that the targets and the suspect’s profile justified the opening of a terrorism investigation.

Officials said the man suspected of carrying out the shooting had a criminal record and had served time in prison. More than 700 members of the security forces are now searching for the suspect in Strasbourg, the French interior minister said.

. . . .

The shooting recalled other attacks in recent years by Islamist extremists in France, Belgium and other parts of Europe. Benjamin Griveaux, the French government spokesman, said after a cabinet meeting in Paris on Wednesday that President Emmanuel Macron had warned that “the terrorist threat is still at the heart of our nation’s life.”

I can’t see how the wave of unchecked immigration of Muslims into Europe has had any effect, can you?

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]


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