Michael Cohen, in Recorded Phone Call, Walks Back Parts of Guilty Plea

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Osodecentx
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Is he lying now or was he lying then?

Michael Cohen, in Recorded Phone Call, Walks Back Parts of Guilty Plea
Trump's former lawyer, set to go to prison in weeks, told actor Tom Arnold he wasn't guilty of some crimes he pleaded guilty to

Michael Cohen has disavowed responsibility for some of the crimes to which he has pleaded guilty, privately contending in a recent recorded phone call that he hadn't evaded taxes and that a criminal charge related to his home-equity line of credit was "a lie."
As he prepares to begin a three-year prison term on May 6, Mr. Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, expressed dismay during the conversation that after testifying for more than 100 hours to federal and congressional investigators about his work for Mr. Trumpincluding the coordination of hush-money deals with two womenhe remained "a man all alone."
"You would think that you would have folks, you know, stepping up and saying, 'You know what, this guy's lost everything,'" Mr. Cohen said during the March 25 call, recorded without Mr. Cohen's knowledge by the actor and comedian Tom Arnold. Mr. Arnold, a vocal critic of President Trump who first made contact with Mr. Cohen in June, provided the recording to The Wall Street Journal for review.
"My family's happiness, and my law license," Mr. Cohen continued. "I lost my businessmy insurance, my bank accounts, all for what? All for what? Because Trump, you know, had an affair with a porn star? That's really what this is about."
In pleading guilty in August, Mr. Cohen explicitly admitted to his crimes before a judge, to make it clear he was acting knowingly. "I take full responsibility for each act that I pled guilty to," he said at his sentencing hearing in December. Since then, he has been attempting to have his sentence reduced by aiding congressional investigations.
Among the charges Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to were five counts of evading personal income taxes and one count of understating his debt and expenses in an application for a $500,000 home-equity line of credit, or Heloc.
On the March call, Mr. Cohen seemed to walk back parts of his admission. "There is no tax evasion," he said on the call. "And the Heloc? I have an 18% loan-to-value on my home. How could there be a Heloc issue? How? Right?It's a lie."
Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen, said: "Michael has taken responsibility for his crimes and will soon report to prison to serve his sentence. While he cannot change the past, he is making every effort to reclaim his life and do right by his family and country. He meant no offense by his statements."
Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty in August to campaign-finance violations in connection with hush-money payments to the two women, the former porn star Stormy Daniels and the former Playboy centerfold model Karen McDougal. Mr. Trump denies he had sex with either woman.
A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office declined to comment. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Cohen's private comments are unlikely to help his cause with the federal prosecutors who would have to endorse a shorter term behind bars, legal experts said, adding that they wouldn't lead to an increase in his sentence, either, unless the government were to bring new charges against him.

Mr. Cohen testified in February in the House of Representatives that Mr. Trump committed crimes, including directing the hush-money schemesduring the 2016 presidential campaign involving the two women. "I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law," Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter in December.
New York prosecutors have asserted previously that Mr. Cohen has been loath to acknowledge his false statements to banks. "This signals that Cohen's consciousness of wrongdoing is fleeting, that his remorse is minimal, and that his instinct to blame others is strong," prosecutors wrote in a December filing.
Before his sentencing, Mr. Cohen's then-lawyer pushed back on the tax charges, telling the judge he had merely failed to identify all his income on bank records he gave his accountant. Prosecutors argued the tax evasion was willful.


In the 36-minute recording, Messrs. Cohen and Arnold covered a range of issues, from the legal troubles of former Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti to Mr. Trump's affinity for the leader of North Korea.
Mr. Arnold said he made the recording without Mr. Cohen's knowledge. Mr. Cohen has himself surreptitiously recorded conversations. During a raid of his home, office and hotel room in April 2018, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized recordings the lawyer made while talking to journalists, political allies, and others, including Mr. Trump. During the call last month, Mr. Arnold praised Mr. Cohen for standing against the president. "You are a hero and you're not alone," Mr. Arnold said.

Mr. Cohen's lawyers earlier this month sought helpfrom the Democratic chairmen of four House committees in obtaining a reduced sentence for their client, asking them to send the legal team a letter saying that Mr. Cohen had "substantially cooperated with Congress" and that congressional investigators would need access to him to complete their probes. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN he doesn't involve himself in sentencing matters "as a practice." There is no indication other lawmakers complied.
Speaking privately with Mr. Arnold, Mr. Cohen said he had pleaded guilty to the charges in August because "they had me on campaign finance" and prosecutors were targeting his wife. Mr. Cohen had failed to disclose to the Internal Revenue Service more than $2.4 million in interest payments he had received from loans, some of which were deposited in an account under his wife's name, New York federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Mr. Cohen's wife declined to comment.

"I love this woman, and I am not going to let her get dragged into the mud of this crap," Mr. Cohen said. "And I never thought the judge was going to throw a three-year fricking sentence."
Mr. Arnold, who has been on a yearslong search for unaired footage of Mr. Trump on the set of "The Apprentice," said he called Mr. Cohen on March 25 to follow up on their interactions from last summer. In June 2018 Mr. Arnold tweeted a picture of himself with Mr. Cohen and said they were working together to take down Mr. Trump, though he later walked that back after Mr. Cohen denied it.
In an interview, Mr. Arnold said he made the call to give Mr. Cohen moral support. He said he recorded the conversation because Mr. Cohen "tapes everything and I wanted to remember what we talked about."
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-cohen-in-recorded-phone-call-walks-back-parts-of-guilty-plea-11556121974?mod=hp_lead_pos3

Oldbear83
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""You would think that you would have folks, you know, stepping up and saying, 'You know what, this guy's lost everything,' said Mr. Cohen."

That right there tells me Cohen is completely delusional. He made enemies on both sides, and still imagines he would be supported when he gets into deep trouble?
Doc Holliday
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Cohen made the stupid decision to get cozy with Clinton lawyers and put all his chips with them instead of with POTUS.

Bad decision. Complete moron.
Malbec
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This is like the pythons and the cobras sharing a duplex.
cinque
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Cohen, like some of you, believe night only came for him. He's grown impatient waiting for Trump's night to come.
It will. It always does.
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