Cohen Attorneys Ask for Sentence Reduction, Citing Lack of Good Faith by Prosecutors
A lawyer for Michael Cohen said Wednesday he planned to seek a reduction in the former Trump attorney's three-year prison sentence for lying to Congress and other crimes, claiming Attorney General William Barr acted in bad faith when dealing with his client.
December 11, 2019 at 06:07 PM
3 minute read
A lawyer for Michael Cohen said Wednesday he planned to seek a reduction in the former Trump attorney's three-year prison sentence for lying to Congress and other crimes, claiming Attorney General William Barr acted in bad faith when dealing with his client.
In a flurry of filings late Wednesday afternoon, Roger Bennet Adler cited Cohen's cooperation with the government and asked U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley of the Southern District of New York to take a "second look" at the 36-month sentence, which Cohen began serving in in May.
Adler said he would ask Pauley to approve a "modest reduction," knocking Cohen's sentence down to just one year and a day, or to allow Cohen to serve less than two years on home confinement and community service.
The filing also hammered Barr for "blind" allegiance to President Donald Trump, saying the Department of Justice had engaged in "shameful Trumpian boot licking" in targeting the president's enemies.
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, Adler said, had not acted in "good faith" in refusing to meet with Cohen after he surrendered to serve his prison sentence and in not supporting his request for a reduced sentence.
"As we perceive it, the government has acted in bad faith to stymie fair consideration of good faith post-sentence cooperation by the government's unilateral decision to shut down its investigations of all matters Trump and to proceed with wildly expansive acceptance of both 'executive privilege' and 'presidential immunity,'" Adler wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A formal motion had not been filed as of Wednesday evening. Adler said he would file his motion on a date to be determined by the court.
Once an avid defender of the president, Cohen began cooperating last year with Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election and an investigation into hush money payments from then-candidate Trump to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels.
Cohen "has paid a heavy price. He has also cooperated significantly. His cooperation should not be overlooked (or diminished), as America's consciousness is raised about precisely who occupies the 'Oval Office,' and the disruptive consequences," Adler said.
Cohen and his other attorneys Lanny Davis and Michael Monico also submitted similar statements in favor of a sentence reduction.
In his filing, Cohen estimated he had spent approximately 170 hours providing testimony to eight government agencies and countless more hours in preparation. As a result of his conviction, Cohen said, he had been disbarred, "financially crushed" and "personally embarrassed and humiliated."
"For a man married 25 years with two children, being incarcerated is a powerful and humiliating punishment," he said.
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