WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Monday called for a “full and complete” sentence for his former lawyer Michael Cohen, accusing him of lying about Trump’s business dealings with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign to get reduced jail time.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen exits Federal Court after entering a guilty plea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
Cohen, who is cooperating with a federal investigation into whether Trump’s campaign worked with Russia to sway the election, is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12 after pleading guilty to tax evasion, making false statements to a bank, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress.
Cohen, once Trump’s self-described “fixer,” said in a court filing last week that he had pursued a Moscow building project with Russian government officials well into the presidential campaign, with Trump’s knowledge.
Cohen admitted he lied to Congress when he said efforts to pursue the Moscow real estate ended in January 2016, when they actually continued until June 2016, after Trump had clinched the Republican presidential nomination. Trump has also said he himself did nothing wrong in those real estate dealings.
Lawyers for Cohen asked the judge in a court filing on Friday not to sentence him to prison.
After the plea deal, Trump attacked Cohen as weak and a liar. In a series of tweets on Monday, the president accused Cohen of cooperating with prosecutors in the Russia probe in exchange for a reduced sentence on the unrelated tax fraud and campaign finance charges.
“‘Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time’. You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term?” Trump’s tweet said in part. It went on to say, “He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.
Lawyer Lanny Davis, who represents Cohen, had no immediate comment.
Trump’s comments on Cohen contrasted with his expressions of sympathy for former associates caught in the web of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who faces sentencing after convictions of tax and bank fraud charges.
Trump has described Mueller’s probe as a political witch hunt and Russia denies interfering in the election.
On Monday, Trump praised longtime associate and Republican operative Roger Stone, who has been under scrutiny by investigators over his comments about leaked Democratic emails during the presidential campaign. Stone told ABC News on Sunday he would not testify against Trump and has not discussed a pardon with the president.
“Nice to know that some people still have ‘guts!’” Trump said in another Twitter post.
It is unusual for a president or any senior government official to comment on court proceedings. Trump has regularly opined on sensitive judicial proceedings from the special counsel case to federal appeals court rulings.
Trump’s attacks on the judiciary have included swipes at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has ruled against his administration on immigration cases. His criticism of an appeals court justice as an “Obama judge” last month drew a rebuke from Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
Jens Ohlin, a professor at Cornell Law School, said there was no rule that prevents people from weighing in on what courts are doing but “it’s highly unusual and inappropriate for the president to insert himself in the judicial process this way.”
“He’s not just a regular person,” Ohlin said. “He’s the head of the executive branch.”
Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Brendan Pierson and Karen Freifeld in New York; editing by Grant McCool
