Immediately after Trump's indictment, Michael Cohen says he didn’t really mean his guilty plea. Good luck on the witness stand
Late Thursday night, just hours after the news broke that the Manhattan district attorney’s office had obtained the indictment, Cohen decided this would be a great time to take advantage of the national spotlight and sit down forwith CNN’s Don Lemon and Alisyn Camerota.
Pleading guilty to federal crimes is not some unilateral gift from defendants to prosecutors and the courts. Defendants receive significant benefits in exchange, including, most notably, a reduction in the sentence recommended. Clear and unambiguous acceptance of responsibility by the defendant for the criminal conduct at issue is a nonnegotiable prerequisite for this arrangement.
Davis went on to suggest that I read Cohen’s sentencing memo. “And then,” he suggested to me, “why not write an article — ‘what everyone has missed — Michael Cohen was charged by SDNY with criminal income tax evasion breaking with precedent, baseless criminal charge, and showing personal animus by SDNY prosecutors.’ That is my opinion — but you can’t use unless you back it up by the facts outlined by Mr. Cohen’s attorney during sentencing, not read or addressed by SDNY prosecutors or the judge.
Trump’s lawyers are likely to have a field day with this. They could argue that Cohen — by his own account now! — lied to the federal judge who accepted his guilty plea and sentenced him to prison.
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