Cohen gave an emotional apology to the court for his involvement in a hush-money scandal that could threaten the Trump presidency — a scheme to buy the silence of two women who said they had affairs with Trump to protect his chances before the 2016 election. Cohen said his blind loyalty to Trump led him to ignore “my own inner voice and my moral compass.”
The sentencing in federal court in Manhattan capped a startling fall for Cohen, 52, who had once hoped to work by Trump’s side in the White House but ended up a central figure in the inquiry into payments to an adult-film star and a former Playboy model before the 2016 election.
Judge William H. Pauley III called Cohen’s crimes a “veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct” and added, “Each of the crimes involved deception and each appears to have been motivated by personal greed and ambition.”
He added that Cohen’s particular crimes — breaking campaign finance laws, tax evasion and lying to Congress — “implicate a far more insidious harm to our democratic institutions.”
“As a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better,” the judge said.
Cohen had pleaded guilty in two separate cases, one brought by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, the other by the office of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Before he was sentenced, a solemn Cohen, standing at a lectern, sounded emotional, but resolved, as he told the judge he had been tormented by the anguish and embarrassment he had caused his family.
“I blame myself for the conduct which has brought me here today,” he said, “and it was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man” — a reference to Trump — “that led me to choose a path of darkness over light.”
Cohen then apologized to the public: “You deserve to know the truth and lying to you was unjust.”
Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s lawyers, called Cohen’s assertion he had acted out of loyalty to Trump “a complete lie.”
“I feel sorry for him,” Giuliani added. “He’s a pathetic serial liar.”
Federal agents raided Cohen’s office and home in April, and he later turned on Trump, making the remarkable admission in court that Trump had directed him to arrange the payments.
Trump at first denied knowing anything about the payments, but then acknowledged that he had known about them. This week, he insisted that the payments were “a simple private transaction” — not election-related spending subject to campaign-finance laws.
He also maintained that even if the hush-money payments were campaign transactions in violation of election law, that should be considered only a civil offense, not a criminal one.
Since Cohen came under investigation, Trump has mocked him as a “weak person” who was giving information to prosecutors in an effort to obtain leniency when he is sentenced.
In fact, Cohen did not sign a formal cooperation agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan or with Mueller. In addition to the campaign-finance violations, Cohen pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, making false statements to a bank and lying to Congress.
He took a calculated gamble in pleading guilty to this litany of federal crimes without first entering into a cooperation agreement with the government. He offered to help prosecutors, but only on his terms, and there were some subjects he declined to discuss.
His lawyers argued he should not serve time in prison. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said he deserved around four years.
Pauley had the final say. The judge said Cohen’s assistance to the special counsel’s office, though useful, did not “wipe the slate clean,” and a “significant term” of prison was justified.
In the end, the judge gave Cohen three years for the crimes he committed in New York and two months for lying to Congress, to be served at the same time. He was also asked to pay nearly $2 million in fines, forfeitures and restitution. The judge ordered Cohen to begin serving his sentence March 6.
Cohen’s sentencing was unusual because it involved guilty pleas he had made in cases brought by the two separate prosecutors.
In the case brought by Mueller’s office, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the duration of negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, as well as about the extent of the involvement of Trump.
Cohen revealed that Trump was more involved in discussions over the potential deal during the election campaign than previously known.
Cohen’s three-year sentence is the first substantial prison term in a case stemming from Mueller’s inquiry. The special counsel had referred the case to the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, where it was overseen by Robert S. Khuzami, the No. 2 official there, who attended the hearing Wednesday.
The investigation of Cohen by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan burst into public view in April when the FBI raided his office, apartment and hotel room. Agents hauled off eight boxes of documents, about 30 cellphones, iPads and computers, even the contents of a shredder.
Four months later, on Aug. 21, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and making false statements to a financial institution.
Cohen admitted in court that he had arranged the payments “for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016.
The payments included $130,000 to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, which the government considers an illegal donation to Trump’s campaign since it was intended to improve Trump’s election chances. (The legal limit for individual contributions is $2,700 in a general election.)
Cohen also admitted he had arranged for an illegal corporate donation to be made to Trump when he orchestrated a $150,000 payment by American Media Inc. to a former Playboy playmate, Karen McDougal, in late summer 2016.
Prosecutors in Manhattan wrote last Friday to Pauley that Cohen, in arranging the payments, “acted in coordination with and at the direction” of Trump, whom they referred to as Individual 1.
On Nov. 29, charged by Mueller’s office with lying to Congress, Cohen pleaded guilty again.
The two prosecuting offices each wrote to Pauley, offering sharply contrasting portrayals of Cohen. The Southern District depicted him as deceitful and greedy and unwilling to fully cooperate with its investigation.
Mueller, on the other hand, said Cohen had “gone to significant lengths to assist” the Russia investigation and recommended that he receive some credit for his help.
Cohen’s lawyer, Guy Petrillo, made an impassioned plea for leniency, citing his client’s courage in cooperating with the Russia inquiry, which he said was “of the utmost national significance,” comparing it to Watergate.
He added: “He came forward to offer evidence against the most powerful person in our country,” without knowing what the result would be, how the politics would play out, or whether “the special counsel would even survive.”
Jeannie Rhee, a prosecutor from Mueller’s office, with which Cohen met seven times, told the judge that Cohen had accepted responsibility for the lies he told Congress and had provided “credible and reliable information about core Russia-related issues.”
But a Manhattan prosecutor, Nicholas Roos, said of Cohen’s cooperation that as much as he “claims he’s done for the republic, the same can be true in the way in which he’s undermined it.”
In the end, Pauley seemed to side with the defense. He said that “cooperation, even when it is not the product of a formal agreement, should be encouraged” when it advances a criminal investigation. “Our system of justice would be less robust without the use of cooperating witnesses to assist law enforcement,” the judge said.
Shortly before Cohen and his family and friends walked out of the courtroom, roughly 20 minutes after the sentencing had ended, he briefly addressed a cluster of reporters who were waiting in an anteroom between the courtroom and the hallway.
“This is my last time talking to you guys,” he said abruptly, then said nothing more.
He and his lawyers waited briefly in the courthouse lobby while his wife, son and daughter left the building, passed through a huge gantlet of television crews and photographers outside, and climbed into a waiting black Infiniti QX60.
Cohen then walked out of the building with a hangdog expression and made a silent beeline to the car.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.