crying, and his daughter who was sitting behind him after he was addressed sobbed after learning a that he would go to jail for three years. and his attorneys had argued that he should be sentenced to time serve and the time that it took for him to be booked and the charges that he plead guilty to, but judge pauley today saying that these were serious crime, and that they were crimes that the deserved a sentence of three years as you were reporting. it is interesting that michael cohen said that he had been in a quote mental and personal incarceration since the day he met president trump, and the today would be his first day of freedom. he acknowledge had the president has called him weak in the tweets and he said that he was weak, and it is that weakness that led him to cover up for some of the president s deeds as he put it. and so today, he is acknowledging the enormity of
this is how cooperation works here, and we treated him like we treat every other defendant, and he chose not to coop ratet for whatever reason, but he should not get the benefit of cooperation. and the other thread that goes through this as well is michael cohen made the point that he really wanted to get on with his life, and that is why he kept this sentencing date. but what i think that underscored part of judge pauley s sentence of three years is that he could only give him credit for whatever cooperation he has provided thus far, and that does not include any information that led to any charges, and it does not include any testimony from michael cohen, and so in the grand scheme of cooperation in these case, it is actually not that much cooperation. so he did give him some credit, but it did not get down to probation. and before i ask danny cevallos to weigh in here, and you are in the you were not in the courtroom, but this fine of $55,000 if you can it is
tried to reimburse the company through michael cohen and call it a retainer with michael cohen, and so there is a lot of deception, and judge pauley used that word in describing his crimes as well, deception. so what this does is to put a big fat x through donald trump s assertions that these are minor process crimes, and, you know, civil, and should only be held responsible civilly, and this is a complete corruption of our federal election system, and it was done in the biggest campaign finance donation probably in our history in the sense of how meaningful it was, because it really changed the whole, and there is a very good argument that changed the whole tone of where this election was going when trump silenced these women from coming out with these stories stories. and outside of the court, danny cevallos, and dan goldman both. dan, you were inside, and your
it all integrates together. that s what i find fascinating. and the prosecutors talk like that. they hit that guy morally. that s the way i read that document tonight. it wasn t some cold secular document. it s saying this is what brings the toxicity into american politics, these affairs being paid off, women being paid off, power being used to snuff out the truth and not enlighten democracy, but deny the truth to democracy and the voters. your thoughts? absolutely, chris. this is a typical southern district, and frankly, any u.s. attorney office type of document where you talk about the purpose of the laws and the spirit of the laws, and that s important, as barb said, to explain to the judge in terms of sentencing. and judge pauley is a judge who takes those laws seriously. you know, i think it s important to point out here that one of the there was a phrase used in the southern district memo about the evidence against cohen being, quote, overwhelming. and that he didn t cooperat
i know the judge, judge pauley, he s tough, candidly, a little intimidating. he s a stern judge and a stern sentencing. what will be of interest to judge pauly, he has very little time for people who commit crimes who know better. he s an attorney, he could have been appearing in front of judge pauley. and i think judge pauley is a staunch deferred of the justice system and the integrity of the justice system and when you have someone who is an attorney, an officer of the court, who now has pled to a series of very serious crimes, i don t think judge pauley is going to take too kindly to that. and gloria, doesn t this just sort of play into trump s hands, this narrative that cohen is willing to tell mueller whatever he wants just to get a light sentence? well, the it might, to a degree. but you ve got to presume that whatever michael cohen is telling bob mueller, bob mueller might know from other sources. that he has clear corroboration on pieces of information, because it s clea