Michael Cohen Court Hearing in New York City

The big news on Wednesday was that Donald Trump’s former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen was sentenced in federal court. Cohen has significant arrangements with federal prosecutors, given that he lived a life of white-collar crime for decades, but he is now cooperating with various federal probes, including the Mueller investigation. So he made a deal, and the judge took the federal prosecutors’ wishes into account for sentencing. Cohen will be going to (white collar) federal prison for three years. Which still seems too lenient to me, but we don’t know the extent to which he rolled on Trump & Associates. The three years will cover counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, lying to Congress, and violations of campaign finance law for the Stormy Daniels situation. As part of the deal, Cohen stood up in court and admitted he “acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1.” Individual 1 = Baby Fists.

After sentencing, Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis told Bloomberg Radio that once the Mueller probe is wrapped up, Cohen will tell all to any congressional committee. Something else that happened just after Cohen’s sentencing? Another deal was made public – federal prosecutors released documents indicating that they have an immunity deal with American Media Inc, aka the National Enquirer, aka Trump’s favorite tabloid. AMI admitted that they coordinated hush-money payments to Trump’s mistresses. Publisher David Pecker was good friends with Trump, and Pecker worked as Trump’s tabloid-level fixer, often in coordination with Cohen. The fact that Pecker and AMI now have an immunity deal with federal prosecutors is a HUGE deal. Pecker, like Cohen, knows where the bodies are buried. Pecker was colluding with Trump for years and years.

Meanwhile, the leading contender for White House chief of staff has just dropped out of the running. Mark Meadows was supposed to be the great white savior of the All-White House but it turns out that NO ONE wants this job.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid.
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Michael Cohen Court Hearing in New York City
Michael Cohen Court Hearing in New York City