Michael Cohen Opens Up in Court as He’s Sentenced to 36 Months: ‘It Was My Duty’ to Cover up Trump’s ‘Dirty Deeds’
Michael Cohen has been sentenced to 36 months in jail.
As Cohen appeared before court for his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, he returned fire on Donald Trump after his old boss called him a “weak person” amid his various legal troubles.
Multiple reporters are on the scene in New York, sharing tidbits of the speech Cohen gave in court after being indicted for fraudulent conduct and campaign finance violations on the president’s behalf. Cohen was reportedly emotional as he said his “blind loyalty” to Trump caused him to “take a path of darkness instead of light,” and he accepts “full responsibility” for the illegal hush money payments and for lying to Congress.
Cohen: "I stand before your honor humbly and painfully aware that we are here for one reason."
"I take full responsibility for each act that I pleaded guilty to …." including those implicating the "President of the United States of America."
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) December 12, 2018
Cohen began his remarks by stating that: "Today is the day that I am getting my freedom back." … "I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen that I deeply admired."
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) December 12, 2018
"I have chosen this unorthodox path because the sooner that I am sentenced," the sooner he can return to his family.
"I do not need a cooperation agreement in place to do the right thing."
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) December 12, 2018
"The president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world," mocks Cohen, he says, "calling me a rat."
He slams Trump for trying to influence proceeding that "implicate" him.
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) December 12, 2018
Tearing up, Cohen apologizes to the public: "You deserve to know the truth and lying to you was unjust."
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) December 12, 2018
Michael Cohen tells the court that he takes full responsibility for the actions that relate to him and to the US president, he blames himself for the conduct that has brought him there, and notes his blind loyalty to the president led him to choose darkness over light.
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 12, 2018
Here we go!!
Cohen:
"Recently the president tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again i felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds"— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) December 12, 2018
Cohen addressed a tweet from President Donald Trump:
Recently the president tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again i felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) December 12, 2018
BREAKING: Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen sentenced to three years in prison for campaign finance violations, lying to Congress. https://t.co/T93R6pVXtC pic.twitter.com/TXdk04Za3G
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 12, 2018
Cohen will be expected to voluntarily report to prison on March 6.
[Image via Getty]
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