Tag: Michael Cohen

Cohen says Trump knew hush-money payments were wrong, contradicting his former boss

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, said in a television interview Friday that Trump knew it was wrong to make hush-money payments to women who alleged they had affairs with him, directly contradicting claims from the president.

Cohen, who has admitted facilitating payments to two women in violation of campaign finance laws, told ABC News that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Asked whether the president also knew it was wrong to make the payments, Cohen replied, “Of course.” He added that the purpose was to “help [Trump] and his campaign.”

View the complete December 14 article by John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Improvises New Defense in Hush Money Payments

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, has been sentenced to three years in prison.CreditCreditStephanie Keith for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Thursday that if there was anything illegal about the hush payments made to two women claiming to have had affairs with him, it was the fault of his former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, part of a newly improvised attempt to combat the legal exposure the president may now have because of the payments.

“I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law,” Mr. Trump said. “He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law.”

In a series of Twitter messages sent from the White House residence, Mr. Trump tried again to distance himself from Mr. Cohen, who federal prosecutors say was directed by his boss to make the hush payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels at a time in the 2016 campaign when their claims could have been highly damaging.

View the complete December 13 article by Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt on The New York Times website here.

A big question looming over Trump just got bigger: What is Allen Weisselberg spilling about?

Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg has been granted immunity in the federal investigation into Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)

We learned Tuesday that not only has Michael Cohen implicated President Trump in campaign finance violations, but effectively so too has the parent company for the National Enquirer, American Media Inc.

In a release about Cohen’s three-year sentence, federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York revealed that AMI has been given immunity from prosecution, just as its head, David Pecker, had previously. SDNY prosecutors also said that AMI admitted its payment to Playboy playmate Karen McDougal was “in concert with” Trump’s presidential campaign and was aimed at burying the story to help elect Trump. As Philip Bump writes, that language is clearly intended to emphasize that this was a campaign finance violation and not just a regular old hush-money payment:

As a part of the agreement, AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate’s presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election.  AMI further admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.

View the complete December 13 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Cohen sentenced to three years in prison

President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for a series of crimes he committed while working for Trump.

U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III sentenced Cohen to 36 months in jail in Manhattan federal court Wednesday morning. The sentence stems from eight federal charges he pleaded guilty to in August, including campaign finance violations tied to a scheme to pay off women alleging affairs with Trump in order to prevent damaging information from surfacing during the 2016 presidential campaign.

His sentence also entails two months to be served concurrently for a single charge of lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump property in Moscow, which Cohen pleaded guilty to in late November as part of a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller. That deal guarantees his cooperation in Mueller’s ongoing Russia investigation.

View the complete December 12 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

This Russian oligarch reportedly bragged of his U.S. influence after Trump’s election — and he has a direct tie to Michael Cohen

Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The sprawling connections between Trump and Russia never end.

Viktor Vekselberg is among the Russian oligarchs that Michael Cohen came into contact with during his years as President Donald Trump’s personal attorney. The 61-year-old Ukraine-born Vekselberg has had business and political contacts in the U.S. for decades—and after the 2016 presidential election, reportedly bragged about his ties to the Trump Organization.

“Soon,” Bloomberg News reports in a new article, “Trump would be in the White House, and Vekselberg would be privately boasting of having the pull needed to help achieve the sanctions relief the Kremlin was craving.”

But sanctions relief, according to Bloomberg, is the last thing Vekselberg experienced after Trump was sworn in as president—and his U.S. activities have cost him billions of dollars in the Trump era.

View the complete December 7 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet.org website here.

‘The president is a crook’: Legal experts tear into Trump as he lies and says new court filings ‘clear’ him

Trump claims that the court filings against Cohen “clear” him. They do not.

In response to the two court filingsmade by federal prosecutors against Michael Cohen on Friday, President Donald Trump took to the internet.

And this time, unlike his early morning outburst in which the president seemed to be on the verge of panic, Trump confidently proclaimed that the new filings mean he is proven innocent and home free.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Totally clears the President. Thank you!

112K

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123K people are talking about this

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Only one problem: he isn’t.

View the complete December 7 article by Matthew Chapman on the AlterNet.org website here.

Prosecutors recommend ‘substantial’ prison time for ex-Trump lawyer Cohen

Federal prosecutors in New York on Friday recommended that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, receive “substantial” prison time for several federal crimes, despite his cooperation with ongoing law enforcement investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia probe.

In a filing late Friday afternoon, prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York recognized Cohen’s cooperation with law enforcement in “ongoing matters” but argued the seriousness of his crimes warrant a “substantial term of imprisonment.”

The filing also cites Cohen’s decision not to become a traditional cooperating witness with federal authorities in New York, despite offering assistance in numerous ongoing investigations.

View the complete December 7 article by organ Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Prosecutors recommend ‘substantial’ prison time for ex-Trump lawyer Cohen

Federal prosecutors in New York on Friday recommended that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, receive “substantial” prison time for several federal crimes, despite his cooperation with ongoing law enforcement investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia probe.

In a filing late Friday afternoon, prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York recognized Cohen’s cooperation with law enforcement in “ongoing matters” but argued the seriousness of his crimes warrant a “substantial term of imprisonment.”

The filing also cites Cohen’s decision not to become a traditional cooperating witness with federal authorities in New York, despite offering assistance in numerous ongoing investigations.

View the complete December 7 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Key Takeaways from the Cohen Filings

Here are key takeaways from the sentencing memos filed by Mueller and SDNY prosecutors tonight:

MORE EVIDENCE OF RUSSIA CONTACTS: Cohen told Mueller’s office about at least two additional contacts he had on Trump’s behalf with people close to the Russian government.

Mueller: “For example, and as described above, the defendant provided a detailed account of his involvement and the involvement of others in the Moscow Project, and also corrected the record concerning his outreach to the Russian government during the week of the United Nations General Assembly.”

Mueller: “The defendant also provided information about attempts by other Russian nationals to reach the campaign. For example, in or around November 2015, Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level.’”

Continue reading “Key Takeaways from the Cohen Filings”

The president’s misleading statements on Trump Tower Moscow: A timeline

Donald Trump defends himself from possible conflicts of interest with foreign governments. (The Washington Post)

“Well I told you, General Flynn obviously was dealing [with Russia]. So that’s one person. But he was dealing, as he should have been. . . . Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”

— President Trump, in a news conference, on Feb. 16, 2017

President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his efforts to secure a real estate deal in Moscow for the Trump Organization in 2015 and 2016, while his boss was campaigning for president.

For three decades, Trump had angled to strike a real estate deal in Moscow, but he could never cinch it, even after his Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow in 2013. In a recent court filing, prosecutors laid out extensive contact on a possible deal through 2016 between Cohen, then an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman with a checkered past, and numerous Russian nationals, including the press secretary for the president of Russia.

View the complete December 3 article by Meg Kelly on The Washington Post website here.