President Donald Trump ridiculed a request by Michael Cohen to avoid jail time and declared Monday on Twitter that he believes his former attorney should serve a full sentence 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’s lawyers made the request in filings revealed Friday to a federal judge in New York City, arguing that recent cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team should absolve him of prison time. Cohen is leveraging recently revealed testimony to Mueller that he previously misstated the scope of a Trump Tower Moscow project. (RELATED: Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty To Charge In Mueller Probe)
Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images
Cohen pleaded guilty in court to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower Moscow project the Trump Organization was involved in around 2015 and 2016. The former Trump attorney also pleaded guilty to eight different criminal counts, ranging from tax evasion to alleged campaign finance violations.
Trump trashed Cohen on his way to the G20 summit Thursday, telling reporters “he’s lying very simply to get a reduced sentence,” adding that “he was convicted with a fairly long-term sentence on things totally unrelated to the Trump organization. Having to do with mortgages and having to do with cheating the IRS.”
U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, leaves the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Court House in lower Manhattan, New York City, U.S. August 21, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Cohen is revising his testimony to say that the Moscow deal was pursued into the Summer of 2016. Trump brushed off this claim Thursday, noting that even if the deal were pursued to this point, it was not illegal to run his business while he was running for president.
Cohen previously claimed in a letter to Congress in August 2017 that he had ceased work on the Trump Tower Moscow deal in January 2016 and noted that he had never visited or discussed the deal with the Kremlin.
