Michael Cohen’s SDNY sentencing memo

Politics

[View here as a Twitter thread]

 

The Cohen SDNY Sentencing Memo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FF9-6bM5U_EvklRVj9Hyxeo6C2vzFYgq/view …

We learn a few things about Cohen. There are a few zingers. Here are my notes: Until 2007, Cohen was a lawyer earning about 75K per year (—a very low salary for a NY lawyer in 2007).

Cohen got his break in 2007 when he aggressively “fixed” a problem for Trump involving the board of directors of a condo building. He was rewarded with a 500K per year job as Executive Vice President and Special Counsel to Trump.

Between 2012 and 2016 he failed to report $4 million income, avoiding 1.4 million in taxes. Zinger #1: When Cohen made payments to Woman-1 and Woman 2, he “acted in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump. Previously we had this fact from Cohen under oath.

Now we have the prosecution stating it. Woman-1 is McDougal. The facts here confirm what we already knew about Karen McDougal and the whole AMI / “Catch and Kill” arrangement. If you want a refresher, it’s here: https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1022535941364170752 …Woman-2, of course, is Stormy Daniels.

To hide the nature of these payments, Cohen sent monthly invoices to the Company (Trump org?). Zinger #2: He did this “At the instruction of an executive for the Company.” Anyone know who the executive is? It’s a Zinger because this implicates another person in TrumpWorld.

We also learn why Cohen is not a cooperating witness: He “declined to provide full info about the scope of any additional criminal conduct in which he may have engaged or had knowledge.” So he doesn’t get a motion for leniency under 5K1.1

The SDNY says that “Cohen’s offenses strike at several pillars of our society and system of government: Payment of taxes, transparent and fair elections, and truthfulness before government and in business.”

Zinger #3, for me, is the “transparent and far elections” part. The SDNY says (obliquely but they say it) that Cohen and Trump undermined—or tried to undermine— “transparent and fair elections.”

The two possible crimes that come to mind are campaign finance violations and conspiracy to defraud the US. Thanks, Bearfan https://twitter.com/unbearablefacts/status/1071285641323798529 …Allen Weisselberg of course. Isn’t he cooperating?

The memo talks about how Cohen was surprised not to get a good job in the Trump administration, but he figured out how to cash in. He sold consulting services that wanted something from the Trump admin.

Remember when we were wondering about AT&T paying money to Cohen and exec Bob Quin having private dinner with Trump’s FCC chair? https://www.americanoversight.org/watchdog-demands-details-of-private-meeting-between-fcc-and-att-executive-who-hired-trump-lawyer …Shortly after, the FCC helped AT&T and Time Warner avoid a lengthy merger review.

Of course, we were all wondering if the elements of bribery had been met. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/8/t-paid-michael-cohens-essential-consulting-insight/ … … The memo says Cohen offered nothing of value to such consulting clients and (after he raked in millions) the contracts terminated.

People are asking about Cohen’s taxi business. From the memo: The largest source of undisclosed income was from his taxi business. Lots of tax fraud there. The 75K seems to be a dig at his law practice.

Tomorrow I’ll read the Mueller sentencing memos on Manafort and Cohen, and I’ll tweet out my notes.

 

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