Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s onetime attorney and now one of the former president’s most vocal critics, is a free man.
What You Need To Know
- Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s onetime attorney and now one of the former president’s most vocal critics, is a free man
- Cohen completed his three-year sentence Monday for tax fraud, campaign finance violations and perjury during congressional testimony
- He served a little more than a year in prison before finishing his sentence in home confinement in New York due to pandemic concerns
- Speaking to reporters in Manhattan, Cohen assumed responsibility for his crimes while also continuing to point the finger at Trump and his allies
Cohen completed his three-year sentence Monday for tax fraud, campaign finance violations and perjury during congressional testimony. He served a little more than a year in prison before finishing his sentence in home confinement in New York due to pandemic concerns.
After meeting with authorities and signing papers Monday, Cohen addressed a group of reporters gathered outside federal court in Manhattan. He assumed responsibility for his crimes while also continuing to point the finger at Trump and his allies.
“My release today in no way negates the actions I took at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump,” Cohen said. “But it also does not negate the behavior of the Justice Department, Bill Barr, the Southern District of New York prosecutors, Judge William H. Pauley III or Donald himself in my initial incarceration and prosecution.”
Cohen added that he received three years’ supervised release, and he vowed to continue cooperating with law enforcement investigations “to ensure that others are held responsible for their dirty deeds and that no one is ever believed to be above the law.”
The 55-year-old former attorney was one of Trump’s most loyal servants and his “fixer,” admitting to working behind the scenes to try to eliminate potentially damaging issues for his boss.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2019 to nine charges related to paying hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom Trump allegedly had affairs with. Cohen said he was carrying out Trump’s orders. The former president denies the allegations and has never been charged.
The relationship between Cohen and Trump began to sour after FBI agents raided Cohen’s office and hotel room in April 2018. Cohen has cooperated with a number of investigations into Trump and his business, and accused Trump of criminal wrongdoing in court, prompting the then-president to label him a “rat.”
In September 2020, Cohen released a book, “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump,” in which he compared Trump to a “mob boss.” He also called Trump “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.”
After being released to home confinement, Cohen was briefly thrown back in prison in July 2020 before a judge ordered him to be returned to his home, ruling that the federal government had retaliated against him for writing the book.
