Right now the judge is reading the charges after mr. Cohen told the court, i am truly sorry and i promises to do better. He Apologize Nod country. And the defense team is asking for full consideration of mercy and telling the judge that the client came forward to offer evidence against the most p powerful man in the country not knowing the result. The prosecutors are responding forcefully and saying that powerful and privileged individuals cannot violate laws without impunity, and back with me, this tremendous panel, Danny Cevallos, Ken Delainian, and elliott and jill winebank. And jill, what do you make of what we have heard so far in this robust apology that we have heard from Michael Cohen saying that he was acting out of Blind Loyalty to donald trump. Of course, the phrase Blind Loyalty to donald trump reminds
me of the book by john dean Blind Ambition and there is some similarity between the two of them where they were basically blinded by the power of the president. But you can only explain so much through Blind Loyalty. You can explain what he did to pay off two women to get donald trump elected and also why he went to ukraine, and we still dont know if he did, but explain some of it, but you cant explain the tax fraud, and you cant explain some of the sta staterelated crimes, and you not explain what he is charged with in the Southern District of new york. Danny, i want to go the you now. And lets just reset where we are, and what we are expecting in terms of this sentencing today. Mi Michael Cohen asking for leniency, and his defense team
is asking for mercy. Do you expect that the judge is going to grant that, and what are the options today, danny . Michael cohens team has asked for a straight probation s sentence and no incarceration. Meanwhile, the Special Counsels office has filed a memorandum saying that he assisted us and helped out, and he did not rise to the level of what we call substantial assistance and the district of new york on the other hand filed what you could call a more scathing memorandum and saying that Michael Cohen did not provide a substantial assistance and did not cooperate as that term is use and so he is not going to be getting a substantial assistance motion. And so it is not the Guideline Range of 51 to 63 month, and instead, even the government is on board with a sentence in the 42month area. Michael cohens attorneys have asked for no incarceration at all. As a defense attorney, i
sympathize with them. Often a client comes to the attorney and says, i am paying you all of this money and you better fight to get me zero time in jail, and the attorneys have to make that shoot the Moon Type Argument that long shot argument for no jail time when the more realistic argument is probably something in the range of 20 to 40 months, at a least statistically. And so that is probably what we can expect in the reasonable range given the national downward trend of sentences for similarly situated defendants. Elliott, let me bring you in now, and reflect if you would on with what we have heard so far from inside of that courtroom. And again, this is from wnbcs Jonathan Dienst and these are not exact quotes, but i want to read a few more for the viewers to give them a sense of the tone of the comment s ths that he ma daimt he said that i blame myself for the conduct that has
brought me here. Blind loyalty to that man. Then he names donald trump, a Blind Loyalty to donald trump. He says, that is what led him to choose darkness over light. And love of my wife, son and daughter. He says is the key focus right now urgs and he is talking about the undeserved pain and shame on his family, and again, these are p powerful words, and as we have been discussing the judge is going to likely determine that there does need to be some level of a jail sentence, and what are you anticipating, and do you think that we have learned anything new factually today, elliott . Doesnt sound like it. We would have heard about it, and respond to the Blind Loyalty part, because to this, it is silly. Because he saying that it is Blind Loyalty that led him to do it, but it is his connections to donald trump that enriched him and holding out to other people that he had proximity to the president of the United States or the president of the United States that got him richer sorry to interrupt you and quickly, we are hearing that he was sentenced. Michael cohen, the president s former attorney and personal fixer was sentenced to 36 months of prison time. Danny cevallos, let me have you respond to this Breaking News. Again, he is is responded to 36 month, and we dont have but elliott, 36 months. So the Probation Department recommended 42 months, and that is a substantial sentence, because he going to jail for three year, and the judge clearly considered and this is the point that i was making in spite of his loyalty to trump having led him to do these bad acts, he benefited tremendously from his proximity to the president , and from his proximity to power and all across, and you know, between the president of the United States frankly, mr. Cohen and a number of these individuals connected to this, and that is all about ambition and greed and lying to enrich ones self and lying to get ones self ahead is
going to bite you and a get you locked up for a long time. So lets not understate the fact that he is going to jail for a bunch of time, and 36 months does not sound like a lot of time in peoples heads, but thinking about this, this is the president s fixer, and the most inner circle person of the inner circle and he is going for a substantial prison time. And yes, they did consider the arguments of the government, and maybe sh, you know, knocked off few months on the basis of his beautiful heart felt tale, but attend of t at at the end of the day, he broke the law and he is going to pay for it. And Danny Cevallos, we have is the answer, the judge sentencing Michael Cohen, the president s former personal fixer to 36 month, and what do you make of that as a substantial sentence as elliott was just pointing out to us. 36 months is the National Median for similarly situated
defendants like cohen, and so it is probably that the judge is aware of the National Median for similarly situated defendants. The average is below the sentencing Guideline Range of 51 to 63 months and even below the 42 months recommended by the United StatesProbation Department. And then when the government filed the sentencing memorandum, it basically left the door open for a slightly lower sentence than 42, so 36 is right in the expected range, and not a big surprise, but still, as elliott says, a significant amount of timer for someone like cohen with no criminal history to be spending behind bars. And Tom Winter Is Standing by for us. Tom, with what do y tom, what do you make of this Breaking News of Michael Cohensentenced to 36 months . Yes. And, tom is apparently having trouble hearing us, so we will go back to Danny Cevallos, and danny, very quickly, we have a few seconds and then we are going to be getting to tom. What is the mood out there at the courthouse . There is definitely a buzz and you can tell that something is about to happen, because people have started to take notice, and so whether or not some of the parties, the government attorneys or someone may be exiting the courthouse. He was seen breaking down several times speaking to judge pauley speaking about the family. He said that today is the first day of his are freedom, afreedo been incarcerated since the
fir first day of mr. Trump and respected him for the real estate and business accumen, but it is a decision that he regrets. The judge said that as much as he appreciated the cooperation that somewhere along the way he lost the moral compass, and he has been sentenced to 36 months in prison and in addition two months in prison to the lies in congress. And so the 36 months have to do with the false statements to the bank, and also tied to Campaign Donation and for lying to congress he got two additional months, but they are concurrently, and that means that he will be serving them at the same time, and so it is three years for Michael Cohen, and in addition to that, he has some bills to pay, and you have a 500 forfeiture and that is 1. 93 million in back taxes as well as three years of
supervised, and so it is a Heavile Toheavy Toll on Michael Cohen, and the judge felt that the crimes that he plead guilty to, he needed to set a sentence that sufficiently deterred those crimes. And that is where we stand outside of court here. Waiting for Michael Cohen to be departing shortly and we will wait to hear whether he is remanded to jail, but it is not, and he will be likely to be give anne date in the future to report the prison. Thank you, tom, for reporting outside of the courthouse, and we will have to wait and see if he says anything once he does leave court. And Danny Cevallos, thank you for your tremendous reporting beforehand. I want to hand off to my colleague Andrea Mitchell who is joining me here in washington. And andrea, significant news within the russia investigation, but within this broader investigation of Michael Cohenwith implications for the president , and former personal attorney sentenced to 36 months behind bars. And it is going to be harder given what the judge said in court, and hard forewhite house and the judge to say it is a minor civil thing, because this is not some minor civil thing, and these are femalonies and ta evasion, and Campaign Finance violation, and the judge incorporating that from the new york sentencing, and the presentencing documents, and that is going to have soming weight. Thank you so much, kristen welker, for the Breaking News, and joining us now is msnbc legal analyst and attorney for the suffolk district of new york, mimi rocah and Ken Delainian as well. And so what do you think about what the sentence is and what the judge said . Yes, cohen got a sentence that many of us predicted because of what he was facing and the fact that he would and should get some credit for the
cooperation that he did provide, ale though he did not get as much credit as he perhaps would have wished for, because he did not fullon cooperate with the Southern District of new york, but i think that the interesting thing to come out of the sentencing is what the judge said. Granted, i was not in the courtroom and i have not heard all of them but what i have been following on twitter and interesting to hear more deill tas, the judge found that Michael Cohens crime was quote sophisticated. In other words, that is a term of art in the sentencing guidelines and there a sophisticated enhance mement th can be applied and the government proposed it should apply here sh, and the judge fo that it did. I believe that refers to in part not just the fact that it was a Campaign Finance crime, but the fact that the way in which it was with done. They set up shell company, and
tried to reimburse the company through Michael Cohen and call it a retainer with Michael Cohen, and so there is a lot of deception, and judge pauley used that word in describing his crimes as well, deception. So what this does is to put a big fat x through Donald Trumps assertions that these are minor process crimes, and, you know, civil, and should only be held responsible civilly, and this is a complete corruption of our federal election system, and it was done in the biggest Campaign Finance donation probably in our history in the sense of how meaningful it was, because it really changed the whole, and there is a very good argument that changed the whole tone of where this election was going when trump silenced these women from coming out with these stories stories. And outside of the court, Danny Cevallos, and dan goldman both. Dan, you were inside, and your
take away from what the judge said following up on what mimi rocah just said. Yes, mimi is absolutely right. I think that judge pauley made a point of not only emphasizing the Campaign Finance and false statements to congress which do rel relate to the president , but was also particularly moved by Michael Cohens commission of the crime for his own personal b benefit. Referencing the fact that he had committed the tax fraud and the bank fraud. Michael cohen spoke for a while in court and longer than most defendants do. And he emphasized the fact that he committed many of these crimes from what he called Blind Loyalty to the president. In the end, the judge, judge pauley recognized that only two of the groups of crimes really did relate to the president , and he sentenced him quite harshly in large part he found that cohens criminal activity
expanded beyond what cohen recognized. So it was interesting and relatively lengthy hearing, andrea, where Michael Cohens attorney guy petrullo asked for leniency and unusual case in light of the National Attention and that Michael Cohen chose not to cooperate merely so he could get on with his life, and that he had received threats to both him and his family, and that this, he had made extensive efforts to cooperate with the Special Counsels office, and he cast some aspersions on the south districts memo which he called quite strident and he castigated the Southern District in some respects quite poignantly even though he had worked there twice before including the chief of the criminal division, and so he was quite upset about that, but the Southern District sort of rebutted that by saying, look,
this is how cooperation works here, and we treated him like we treat every other defendant, and he chose not to coop ratet for whatever reason, but he should not get the benefit of cooperation. And the other thread that goes through this as well is Michael Cohen made the point that he really wanted to get on with his life, and that is why he kept this sentencing date. But what i think that underscored part of judge pauleys sentence of three years is that he could only give him credit for whatever cooperation he has provided thus far, and that does not include any information that led to any charges, and it does not include any testimony from Michael Cohen, and so in the grand scheme of cooperation in these case, it is actually not that much cooperation. So he did give him some credit, but it did not get down to probation. And before i ask Danny Cevallos to weigh in here, and you are in the you were not in the courtroom, but this fine of 55,000 if you can it is
straight, and 50,000, i think that it is for lying to congress. And now, this was the mueller piece of it. And what about his cooperation with mueller, because they had a different presentencing memo, and did he get credit for that . He ended upt getting 36 months down from the bottom guidelines of 51 months and this is because of the cooperation of the Special Counsels office, and yet in Guideline Range of up to six months he got two months. So he is not going to be having more prison time, because it will be concurrent time. But the judge made a point of stressing how awful it is that Michael Cohen lied to congress. He pointed out that he needed what is specific deterrence, and not just to deter other people from doing this in the future which is general deterrence, but that Michael Cohen needed his own deterrence to not do it
again, and as to the fine, he levied a fine of 50,000 on each case and is a total of 100,000, and he emphasized that the Guideline Range for lying to congress does not adequately represent the harm of doing so. Judge pauley was trying to send a message to other people that if you lie to congress, there is going to be consequences. Danny cevallos, as a former defense lawyer, you have followed these kinds of cases. The other piece of this is that in his admissions before, he indicated they had circulated his lies before to the people in the white house. We dont even know whom, and how close this got to the president or others around him. And so with what about that .