Cohen asks federal judge for leniency after guilty plea

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former longtime lawyer and fixer, asked a federal judge on Friday to allow him to avoid prison time when he is sentenced later this month.

In a court filing in the Southern District of New York, Cohen’s lawyers cited Cohen’s cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

{mosads}“In the context of this raw, full-bore attack by the most powerful person in the United States, Michael, formerly a confidant and adviser to Mr. Trump, resolved to cooperate, and voluntarily took the first steps toward doing so even before he was charged,” Cohen’s lawyers wrote.

Cohen has voluntarily met with Mueller’s team seven times throughout the course of the investigation and will “continue to make himself available” to the office for additional questioning, the documents state.

Cohen’s lawyers added that he could have positioned himself “perhaps for a pardon or clemency,” but chose to take “personal responsibility for his own wrongdoing and contributed, and is prepared to continue to contribute to an investigation that he views as thoroughly legitimate and vital.”

The memo comes just a day after Cohen pleaded guilty to making misstatements before congressional intelligence committees while testifying about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign.

He pleaded guilty to making a false statement about the effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign while testifying before Congress, according to court documents, and made false statements about the timing of the project.

Cohen was in “close and regular contact” with White House staff and Trump’s legal team while he was crafting misstatements to Congress, according to his lawyers’ filing.

Cohen’s lawyers wrote that the false statements “sprung regrettably from Michael’s effort, as a loyal ally and then-champion” to help push forward Trump’s political messaging.

Cohen followed the political messaging that Trump, identified as “Client-1” in the documents, his staff and supporters “repeatedly and forcefully broadcast.” He justified making the false statements to Congress on the grounds that the Moscow project did not end up going forward, lawyers wrote.

Cohen pleaded guilty to several federal crimes in August, including violating campaign finance law. Without naming him, Cohen suggested that he violated the law at Trump’s direction.

The charges stemmed from a $130,000 nondisclosure payment he made to Stormy Daniels to silence the adult-film star’s allegations that she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago.