Prosecutors say Michael Cohen committed 'serious crimes worthy of meaningful punishment'

Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York said in a court filing on Friday that Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal attorney, should receive a "substantial" prison sentence.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office additionally filed a memo that said Cohen's "crime was serious, both in terms of the underlying conduct and its effect on multiple government investigations."

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations, and last week, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the scrapped Trump Tower Moscow project. New York prosecutors said Cohen "sought to undermine core institutions of our democracy," and Mueller's team said his sentence "should reflect the fact that lying to federal investigators has real consequences."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The New York Times reports that Cohen will be sentenced in Manhattan next week in each of his plea deals. He has been cooperating with Mueller's probe into the Trump campaign's involvement with Russian election interference. In the memo from Mueller's office, prosecutors said he "lied to investigators about critical facts, in an investigation of national importance," but "made substantial and significant efforts to remediate his misconduct." While Mueller's office did not recommend a specific amount of prison time, New York prosecutors suggested 51 to 63 months imprisonment may be appropriate. "This range reflects Cohen's extensive, deliberate, and serious criminal conduct," prosecutors wrote.