New York- Former personal lawyer for the US president Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, has been sentenced to three years in prison and blasted Trump’s ‘dirty deeds’ for putting him in that position.
Cohen pleaded guilty for multiple charges including making hush payments to silence two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
“I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” Cohen said as he pleaded for leniency before US District Judge William H. Pauley III in a packed Manhattan courtroom.
Cohen was emotional during his sentencing, he was Trump’s longtime “fixer,” telling the court he was taking responsibility for his personal crimes and “those implicating the president of the United States of America.”
However Judge Pauley said that Cohen ‘should have known better’.
“Each of these crimes standing alone warrants considerable punishment,” Pauley said, adding that Cohen was “motivated by personal greed and ambition.”
“A significant term of imprisonment is fully justified in this highly publicised case to send a message,” the judge said.
Cohen addressing the court said the trial has forced him to choose light over darkness, “Today is the day that I am getting my freedom back,” he said.
“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 I deeply admired,” Cohen said.
“I now realise there was little to admire,” he said.
Cohen referred to Trump’s recent tweets where he called him “weak,” saying his only weakness was “blind loyalty” to his former boss.
“Time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass,” he said.
Cohen told prosecutors the payments to the two women to silence them, totaled $280,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal were made “in coordination with and at the direction” of Trump — referred to by prosecutors as “Individual-1.”
Both women have said they have had sexual encounters with Trump before he was the Republican candidate for president. Prosecutors have characterized the payments as illegal campaign contributions intended to influence the election.
Prosecutors said, “Cohen deceived the voting public by hiding alleged facts that he believed would have had a substantial effect on the election.”
Photo credit- Second Nexus
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