Trump’s former attorney jailed for three years

A US federal judge has sentenced President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to three years in prison for financial crimes and lying to Congress, as the disgraced ‘fixer’ apologised but said he felt it was his duty to cover up the ‘dirty deeds’ of his former boss. A report in The Washington Post says Cohen made an emotional apology to US District Judge William H Pauley III, taking responsibility for what the judge called a ‘veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct’ – crimes that included tax violations, lying to a bank and, during the 2016 campaign, buying the silence of women who claimed that they once had affairs with the future President. The downfall of the high-profile lawyer has potential consequences far beyond Cohen, as authorities have alleged that Trump directed him in violating campaign finance laws, notes the report. Cohen laid plenty of the blame at the President’s feet, and his lawyer said he would continue to co-operate with the ongoing special counsel investigation of the President’s campaign. ‘My weakness could be characterised as a blind loyalty to Donald Trump,’ Cohen told the packed courtroom. Cohen had faced as much as five years and three months in prison, but Pauley said the sentence should reflect two key elements of Cohen’s case – punishing those who repeatedly break the law while rewarding those who co-operate and provide truthful testimony. Cohen has provided information to investigators about Trump and the Trump campaign, but prosecutors said he refused to tell them everything he knew.