A federal judge sentenced a former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to three years in prison for tax evasion, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and campaign finance violations, according to officials.
Cohen plead guilty on Aug. 21 to an eight-count information in federal court.
U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III sentenced Cohen.
In a separate prosecution brought by the Special Counsel’s Office, Cohen plead guilty on Nov. 28 to one count of making false statements to the U.S. Con
gress and was also sentenced on that case to receiving a two-month concurrent sentence, according to authorities.
Between 2012 and 2016, Cohen concealed more than $4 million in personal income from the IRS, avoiding more than $1.3 million in income tax. Cohen also made false statements to a federally insured financial institution to obtain a $500,000 home equity loan.
Finally, in 2016, Cohen made or caused two separate payments to women to ensure that they did not publicly disclose their alleged affairs with a presidential candidate in advance of the election.
In one instance, Cohen caused American Media, Inc., which was identified in previous court filings as “Corporation-1,” to make a $150,000 payment to one woman; in the other, Cohen made a $130,000 payment to another woman through an LLC he incorporated for the purpose of making the payment.
Cohen was for
the latter payment in monthly installments disguised as payments for legal services performed pursuant to a retainer, when in fact no such retainer existed.
Cohen made or caused both of these payments in order to influence the 2016 election and did so in coordination with one or more members of the campaign.
In addition to the sentence of imprisonment, Judge Pauley also ordered Cohen, 52, of New York, New York, to pay a fine of $50,000, to forfeit $500,000, to pay $1,393,858 in restitution to the IRS, and to pay a mandatory $800 special assessment.
Separately, Cohen was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and to pay a $100 special assessment. Cohen was also sentenced to concurrent three-year terms of supervised release in both cases, to follow his term of imprisonment.