President Trump ripped into his former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen on Twitter again Monday morning, saying he thinks Cohen should serve time in prison.
“Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time.” You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018
….his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018
Cohen pled guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress about how much he discussed an ill-fated Trump Tower Moscow project with then-candidate Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. He originally told the House and Senate Intelligence Committees that negotiations around the project had ended in January 2016, before the presidential primaries, but admitted on Thursday that the talks went on until at least June of that year.
Cohen once said he would “take a bullet” for Trump but on Thursday took a plea deal, agreeing to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and asking the federal judge overseeing his case to spare him prison time.
“I made these statements to be consistent with Individual 1’s [Trump’s] political messaging and out of loyalty to Individual 1,” Cohen said in his plea.
“Truly the greatest punishment Michael has endured in the criminal process has been the shame and anxiety he feels daily from having subjected his family to the fallout from his case,” his lawyers wrote in a Friday court filing making the case for a lenient sentence.
Cohen pled guilty in August to eight charges, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and campaign-finance violations, related to hush-money payments made to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
“He’s a weak person and not a very smart person,” Trump said of his long-time lawyer last week. “He’s lying, very simply, to get a reduced sentence.”
Cohen is set to be sentenced on December 12. Under his plea deal, prosecutors have recommended a term of zero to six months in prison.