Trump ex-lawyer Cohen given 3 years in prison
US president's former lawyer made illegal hush payments to women before the 2016 election
NEW YORK US President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and self-proclaimed "fixer" Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for crimes including making hush payments to women in violation of campaign laws before the 2016 election.
He promised to keep cooperating with the US government against his former boss.
The sentence, which capped a stunning about-face by a lawyer who once vowed to "take a bullet" for Mr Trump, was handed down in New York on the same day as news that the publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid had struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid charges over its role in one of two hush payments involving Mr Trump (see report, right).
The twin developments highlighted the growing political and legal risks for Mr Trump from a months-long investigation into the payments by federal prosecutors.
Some legal experts said Mr Trump could be charged after leaving office. Justice Department policy is not to indict a sitting president.
"These prosecutors have charged or reached agreement with everyone involved in this process save one notable exception,"said Prof Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University.
"It seems likely that this effort is directed at building a larger case against Donald Trump."
Cohen had said in a guilty plea in August that he was directed by Mr Trump to arrange a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, and personally pay adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
Prosecutors confirmed last week in a filing that they believed the president ordered the payments to protect his campaign.
Mr Trump has denied the affairs and argues the payments to the two women were not campaign contributions.
"If it were, it's only civil, and even if it's only civil, there was no violation based on what we did," he said on Tuesday.
Cohen was part of Mr Trump's inner circle, and in the past called himself the president's "fixer."
After Cohen pleaded guilty on Nov 29, Mr Trump called Cohen a liar, "a weak person and not a very smart person."
US District Judge William Pauley gave Cohen three years for the payments, and unrelated crimes of tax evasion and misleading banks.
He gave Cohen two months for lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Russia.
Judge Pauley described the crimes as a "smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct" marked by deception and "motivated by personal greed".
He ordered Cohen to forfeit US$500,000 (S$685,000) and pay restitution of nearly US$1.4m.
Cohen's father, Mr Maurice Cohen, a Holocaust survivor who convince his son to cooperate with prosecutors against Mr Trump, showed little emotion during the hearing but later told reporters: "My heart is ripped."
Prosecutors have said Cohen, just before the November 2016 election, paid Ms Daniels US$130,000 and helped arrange the US$150,000 payment to Ms McDougal so the women would keep quiet.
Federal law requires that the contribution of "anything of value" to a campaign must be disclosed, and an individual donation cannot exceed US$2,700.
"It was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light," Cohen told the judge, referring to Mr Trump.
"I felt it was my duty to cover up his own dirty deeds,"he added.- REUTERS
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