Michael Cohen should have received a longer sentence

By Ali Qazi

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, was sentenced to three years in prison for campaign finance violations on Dec. 12th. In other words, Cohen got a slap on the wrist with three years when, in all honesty, he should have gotten a longer sentence for not coming forward earlier.

“I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen I deeply admired,” Cohen said , according to a Dec. 12 Rolling Stones article.

Which usually makes sense, when one feels like they are in jail, they usually stay there and do nothing about it. He could have backed away from Trump at any point in time without liability. Since he refused to do so the punishment he received was utterly on him.

To make matters worse, for Cohen he admitted to lying to Congress about a Trump real estate project in Russia and the extent of the president’s involvement in and knowledge of that deal in 2017. Cohen also admitted to orchestrating hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal who had affairs with his former boss.

The payments, which Cohen told prosecutors were delivered at Trump’s direction, occured in the months leading up to the 2016 election as part of an effort to shield then-candidate Trump from negative publicity. Cohen recorded the conversation with Trump about planning the hush money payments to protect himself and used them to defend his stance since the president denied knowledge of the payments.

“I will not be the villain of his story,” Cohen said in a Dec. 14 interview with ABC.

Don’t feel bad for Cohen just because he was acting on behalf of the president. After all, each individual has a mind of their own and are judged based off their actions, something that Cohen’s trial seemed to dismiss.

A lawyer can choose to stop representing a client at any time regardless of who they are. Don’t be mistaken, Cohen knew what he was doing and admitted he knew it was wrong.

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“I knew what I was doing was wrong,” Cohen said in the ABC interview. “I stood up before the world,and I accepted the responsibility for my actions.”

Its seems Trumps ‘fixer’ is trying his absolute best to fix his own mess. Since Cohen’s arrest and his conscience is in the right place, he should try and reduce his sentence by giving the authorities anything he has on Trump regarding inappropriate use of inaugural funds, collusion with Russia or anything that has yet to be discovered by the Muller investigation.

 

Regardless of how people may feel about opinions expressed by the president, one shouldn’t forget the difference between what’s right and wrong. Hopefully, with Cohen being an example, many others who work in the White House, Congress or Supreme Court will avoid the unnecessary risks of protecting an authority. It’s funny what the fear of a prison sentence can do to a well-known federal prosecutor who knows his way around the law.