by William Upton
Disgraced lawyer Michael Cohen, who takes the stand today in former President Donald J. Trump‘s Manhattan-based hush money trial, is not the ideal witness for District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s prosecutors. Cohen has a sordid legal history and served a prison stint for fraud, tax evasion, and lying to Congress.
COHEN THE FRAUDSTER.
In late 2018, following what appears to have been a nearly year-long investigation into tax evasion campaign finance fraud allegations, Cohen surrendered himself to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He pleaded guilty to eight federal charges, including tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, violating the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1971, and making an excessive contribution on behalf of a candidate. The last charge stems from the alleged $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
After his conviction, Cohen began speaking to the press through his attorney, Lanny Davis, a long-time Clinton confidant. This, arguably, marked the start of the events that would culminate in the ongoing hush money trial brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In what appeared to be a ploy to avoid any serious jail time, Cohen sat for over 50 hours of interviews with the Mueller Investigation — with little coming of his testimony. In December 2018, a federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison. The disgraced lawyer was also hit with a $50,000 fine, ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution, and made to forfeit an additional $500,000.
‘PERVERSE’ AND A ‘SERIAL PERJUROR.’
At the same time, in November 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress.