In a sentencing memo released Friday evening, federal prosecutors said President Donald Trump’s longtime fixer Michael Cohen should face “a substantial term of imprisonment”—which, in this case, would amount to about four years behind bars—for pleading guilty to felonies that include campaign finance violations allegedly made at Trump’s direction for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election.
As part of a plea deal made with Special Counsel Robert Mueller—who is investigating alleged Russian meddling in the election, and any involvement by the Trump campaign or administration in such matters—Cohen also admitted last week to lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
For that crime, the Special Counsel’s Office (SCO) also released a sentencing memo late Friday, which points out that in recent months,
Mueller’s memo does not weigh in on how Cohen should be punished for lying to federal lawmakers investigating the presidential election—but while it acknowledges that “the defendant’s crime was serious” and he should face “real consequences,” it also urges the judge who will be making the final decision to consider Cohen’s contributions to the SCO’s probe and says that any prison time should be served concurrently with any sentence for his other crimes.
The prosecutors’ memo, meanwhile, charges that Cohen has engaged in “a pattern of deception that permeated his professional life,” and he did does not deserve the lenient sentence he is seeking due to his cooperation with investigations of the president. “He was motivated to do so by personal greed, and repeatedly used his power and influence for deceptive ends,” that memo states.
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