Michael Cohen Reportedly Reaches Plea Deal Over Payments to Women, Faces 3-5 Years
UPDATE: The New York Times reported Michael Cohen has reached a plea deal over his payments to women during the 2016 election on behalf of President Donald Trump.
NBC News reported Cohen’s deal will include a slew of charges:
BREAKING: Sources tell NBC News that Michael Cohen’s plea deal will include tax fraud, bank fraud AND a campaign finance violation charge
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) August 21, 2018
The deal with prosecutors reportedly includes jail time for Cohen and a substantial monetary fine. He is expected to appear in federal court for a hearing at 4:00 p.m. EST. CNN reported he has turned himself into the FBI.
BREAKING: Michael Cohen has surrendered to the FBI ahead of a 4 p.m. ET court proceeding https://t.co/wTmE32gOMS pic.twitter.com/RFhoC9iqip
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 21, 2018
The reported plea deal stems from payments arranged by Cohen to silence women claiming to have had affairs with Trump, his former longtime client.
ABC News first reported that the former Trump lawyer has struck a deal on a guilty plea with prosecutors in Manhattan. This comes amid months of legal trouble and investigations into multiple counts of bank fraud, tax evasion, and violations of campaign finance law.
Cohen has been under pressure for months due to a number of shady business deals and his involvement in the 2016 hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal. This development could have considerable implications for President Trump since Cohen made these payments in order to suppress his alleged affairs with both women ahead of the 2106 election.
There has been a great deal of speculation recently that Cohen’s legal troubles caused him to lean towards cooperating with Robert Mueller‘s investigation into the Trump campaign. However, indications suggest Cohen’s deal doesn’t involve him flipping on the president, which carries a number of connotations in and of itself:
Per @KaraScannell, Cohen isn’t flipping, he’s just agreeing to plea guilty.
I assume that means one of three things is true
1. He doesn’t want to cooperate
2. Doesn’t have anything of value
3. The Feds already have what he’s willing to offerStory: https://t.co/JksTSToK1k pic.twitter.com/mC6nAQupoR
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) August 21, 2018
Nonetheless, it’s worth remembering that Cohen recently rocked the political world with his secret recordings on Trump, and he also claims that the president was aware of his son’s infamous 2016 meeting with a Kremlin lawyer at Trump Tower.
This is a breaking story, and we will update as more information becomes available.
UPDATE 3:48 p.m. ET — Fox News is reporting that Cohen will receive 3-5 years in jail as part of the agreement.
JUST IN: Michael Cohen to plead guilty in deal that includes 3-5 years jail time, source says. https://t.co/YYhf3cxZgo
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 21, 2018
Watch above, via ABC.
[Photo via Getty Images]
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