Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen leaves federal court in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., November 22, 2021.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters
Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen completed his criminal home confinement sentence Monday — and vowed to continue helping law enforcement investigate the ex-president, the Trump Organization, and others in Trump’s orbit.
Cohen, who controversially was tossed back into prison briefly last year by federal authorities after winning an early furlough, also told CNBC he will keep pushing “to advance prison reform in any way I can.”
“My release today in no way negates the actions I took at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump,” Cohen said in a statement after submitting paperwork at Manhattan federal court to end his home confinement.
But Cohen said “it also does not negate the behavior of the Justice Department,” Trump’s attorney general William Barr, the federal prosecutors who lodged criminal charges against him, his sentencing judge “or Donald Trump himself in my initial prosecution.”
A lawyer for Cohen previously said he appeared to have been unjustly targeted and selectively prosecuted during the Trump administration. The lawyer also said Cohen was not given credit against his sentence despite cooperation with investigators, while others in the Trump Organization were not prosecuted by federal authorities.
In his statement Monday, Cohen said, “I remain cognizant of my responsibilities and my release today will not cease my commitment to law enforcement.”
“I will continue providing testimony, documents and cooperation on all investigations to ensure that others are held responsibly for their dirty deeds and that no one is ‘ever’ believed to be above the law,” he added.
The Manhattan resident, once counted among Trump’s most loyal employees, in recent years has become a leading critic of the former president and a key witness in criminal and civil probes that still plague Trump.
Those investigations include one by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which in July criminally charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg with a long-term scheme to avoid paying taxes on executive compensation. Trump’s company and Weisselberg have pleaded not guilty in that case.
The DA’s office and the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James are continuing probes based on Cohen’s allegations that the Trump Organization misstated the value of real estate assets to fraudulently lower tax liability and to win more favorable loan and insurance terms. Cohen made the accusations during testimony to Congress.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal tax crimes, lying to Congress and to campaign financial violations. The charges related to hush money payments to two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, shortly before the…
Read More: Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen finishes criminal sentence