President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Wednesday, pleaded guilty only to "embarrass" him.
"I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called 'advice of counsel,' and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid," Trump tweeted in an early morning tirade in which he attacked his former "fixer."
Cohen was sentenced to 36 months in prison on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to nine federal charges, which included campaign finance violations that Cohen told the court he made at the direction of Donald Trump. As part of their investigation, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York concluded that the president had directed Cohen to pay hush money payments to two women shortly before the 2016 election.
"I take full responsibility for each act that I pled guilty to: The personal ones to me and those involving the president of the United States of America," Cohen said in court Wednesday. "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."
But Trump has disputed Cohen's statements, claiming that his former attorney was pleading guilty only to wreak havoc on his presidency.
"Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me, but he plead [sic] to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not guilty even on a civil basis. Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence, which he did-including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook. As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!" Trump wrote on Thursday.
....guilty even on a civil basis. Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence, which he did-including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook. As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018
Trump was referring to a Wall Street Journal report that prosecutors also had evidence that implicated Cohen's wife in potential criminal activity, though she has not been charged. In another series of tweets earlier this month, Trump claimed that Cohen had lied to the court to "get his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free."
Trump has ramped up his attacks on Cohen since his ex-attorney made a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Along with Cohen, Mueller has closed in on former Trump associates Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn.
The president has continually called for Mueller's investigation to be shut down, but now that Democrats have regained control of the House of Representatives, Trump is likely to face even more investigations into his alleged ties to Russia and his family's business dealings.
Democrats are already considering questioning Cohen themselves before he goes to prison. Representative Eric Swalwell told CNN that lawmakers believe that Cohen "knows where all the bodies are buried" when it comes to Trump and Russia.
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Alexandra Hutzler is currently a staff writer on Newsweek's politics team. Prior to joining Newsweek in summer 2018, she was ... Read more
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