• Cohen wept in federal court in Manhattan as he faced sentencing on nine criminal charges
  • He must report to jail in upstate New York on March 6 
  • A tearful Cohen pushed back at President Trump for calling him ‘weak’ 
  • His lawyer repeatedly invoked Trump while arguing against a long sentence
  • He went to court Wednesday morning accompanied by his wife and children
  • The Southern District of New York in a court filing said he deserved a ‘substantial’ sentence and proposed he face up to five years in jail
  • Special Counsel Mueller’s team noted his cooperation with the Russia probe
  • He pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress about his 2016 pursuit of a Trump tower deal in Moscow and contacts with Russians about it 
  • Also pleaded guilty to campaign finance and bank fraud related to $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels 
  • Testified he was ‘directed’ by Donald Trump to make payment to Daniels
  • Cohen once said he would ‘take a bullet’ for Trump but ended up cooperating facing jail time and massive legal fees
  • 7345128 6488137 image a 26 1544640296266 - Weeping Michael Cohen gets 3 years in prison...
    7353750 6488137 image a 44 1544653509346 - Weeping Michael Cohen gets 3 years in prison...

    Michael Cohen’s weepy statements in court

    I stand before your honor humbly and painfully aware that we are here for one reason.

    I take full responsibility for each act that I pled guilty to The personal ones to me and those involving the President of the United States of America.

    This may seem hard to believe, but today is one of the most meaningful days of my life.

    I have been living in personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen that I deeply admired. In fact, I now know there is little to admire.

    Recently the president tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.

    I blame myself for the conduct which has brought me here today and it was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to this man that led me to choose a path of darkness over light.

    Seeing the unbearable pain that my associations and my actions have brought to my entire family – this is why I did not enter into a cooperation agreement.

    I do not need a cooperation agreement in place to do the right thing. I will continue to cooperate.

    I want to apologize to the people of the United States. You deserve to know the truth and lying to you was unjust.

    I am committed to proving my integrity and making sure history will not remember me as the villain in his story.

    I’m truly sorry and I promise I will be better.

    In a courtroom plea for leniency, Cohen’s lawyer, Guy Petrillo, described his client as a brave witness who came forward with evidence ‘against the most powerful person in our country’ – and tried to draw a contrast with former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who prosecutors say committed ‘lies’ despite agreeing to cooperate.

    He did so without being able to ‘anticipate the full measure of attack that would be made against him,’ his lawyer argued.

    Petrillo called it a ‘profound contrast’ with others who decided to allegedly ‘double deal,’ CNN reported.

    ‘He knew that the president might shut down the investigation,’ Petrillo said, Courthouse News reported.

    His lawyers also pushed back at SDNY, which in its sentencing memo pointed out that Cohen never reached a cooperation agreement.