Michael Cohen Sentenced to Prison for Lying to Congress and Crimes Done “at the Direction of” Trump

President Trump’s former lawyer/fixer admitted under oath to committing a campaign finance felony “in coordination with and at the direction of Individual 1” earlier this month, in addition to lying to congress. In Friday’s huge filings by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Southern District of New York, investigators said that Individual-1 became president in 2017, and over the course of 37 combined pages, Individual 1 was mentioned 30 times, including Robert Mueller restating Cohen’s implication of Trump in his guilty plea.

It’s not unreasonable to say that the expectation is that Trump will eventually be charged with a campaign finance felony. In fact, the bounty of evidence flowing from Michael Cohen is damn-near unimpeachable at this point, as this Fox News headline from a longtime Trump apologist proves:

Andrew C. McCarthy: Why Trump is likely to be indicted by Manhattan US Attorney.

The main reason why this seems more likely to happen than not is because Michael Cohen is guilty, and he acted “in coordination with and at the direction of Individual 1.” The transitive property absolutely applies in this instance (if Cohen = guilty, and Cohen = Trump, then Trump = guilty). Today, Michael Cohen was sentenced to prison, and told the judge that “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.”

Michael Cohen just got 3 years in jail for crimes that Republican lawmakers just spent several days dismissing as things just about anyone could get in trouble for https://t.co/LpczzUJKrV

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) December 12, 2018

I hope ppl are absorbing this. Manafort has been sitting in solitary for how long? Cohen is going to prison, will lose a fortune in fees. This is no way to live, much less any way to run a country. Don’t lie for anyone. Don’t work for ppl who ask you to do bad things.

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) December 12, 2018

For a more detailed look at Cohen’s crimes committed “in coordination with and at the direction of Individual 1,” check out this Vox explainer. As far as whether Cohen will receive a pardon? Probably not.

“Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time.” You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018

….his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018

UPDATE: Man oh man is Trump in trouble. AMI is the company that owns the National Enquirer and now they just strengthened the case that Trump committed a felony. Also, Kaivon Shroff pointed out what a lot of media, including this story, has left out of its coverage: Michael Cohen wasn’t just Trump’s personal lawyer, he was also the Deputy Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee as recently as June 20th of this year.

Woah! This from SDNY, saying they reached a non-prosecution agreement with AMI, in connection with AMI’s role in making the $150,000 payment. As a part of the agreement, AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with Trump’s campaign.

— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) December 12, 2018

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.