Federal prosecutors recommend a 3.5 year sentence for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen
- Federal prosecutors in Manhattan released a memo on Friday detailing the extent of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's crimes and recommended a 3.5 year sentence.
- Last week, Cohen pleaded guilty on one count of lying to Congress, a crime that usually merits a sentence of around six months in jail, as part of a plea deal to cooperate with Mueller's investigation.
- Prosecutors say Cohen has given 70 hours of testimony to the special counsel's office alone and cooperated in other investigations.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan released a memo on Friday detailing the extent of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's crimes and recommended a 3.5 year sentence and that Cohen pay a $100,000 fine.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to eight federal crimes, including tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations that he said he carried out at Trump's behest. Cohen could have faced up to 65 years of prison, if he had gone to trial and had been convicted.
Prosecutors said "was motivated to do so by personal greed, and repeatedly used his power and influence for deceptive ends. Now he seeks extraordinary leniency - a sentence of no jail time - based principally on his rose-colored view of the seriousness of the crimes."
They continued: "But the crimes committed by Cohen were more serious than his submission allows and were marked by a pattern of deception that permeated his professional life."
Last week, Cohen pleaded guilty on one count of lying to Congress, a crime that usually merits a sentence of around six months in jail, as part of a plea deal to cooperate with Mueller's investigation. He specifically pleaded guilty to lying in his September 2017 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding the times during which the Trump Organization actively pursued a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow in the 2016 election.
Even though his first plea deal did not include a formal cooperation agreement, a sentencing memo submitted by Cohen's lawyers shone light on how Cohen has offered to assist law enforcement at every possible turn.
Read more: Michael Cohen's lawyers dropped a slew of intriguing bombshells about Trump in a new court filing
The memo says Cohen has given 70 hours of testimony to the special counsel's office alone, has met with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and state investigators in New York, and has also cooperated with a separate unknown "open inquiry" conducted by the New York Attorney General's office.