President Donald Trump has responded news of his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, being sentenced to prison, as well as the latest revelation in the case of Trump’s former national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
A judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison on Dec. 12 for tax evasion, bank fraud, campaign-finance violations, and lying to Congress.
The charges stemmed from the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into the extent of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Cohen’s crimes are not related to allegations of collusion with Russia, the core theme of Mueller’s probe.
The president responded to the sentence on Dec. 13 via Twitter.
“I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called ‘advice of counsel,’ and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid,” Trump wrote.
“Despite that many campaign finance lawyers have strongly stated that I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, if they even apply, because this was not campaign finance. Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me, but he plead to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not guilty even on a civil basis.”
The president added, “Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much-reduced prison sentence, which he did-including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook. As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!”
Trump Responds to Flynn Revelation
The case of Flynn also stems from the Mueller investigation.
A memo prepared for the court on Dec. 11 ahead of Flynn’s sentencing states that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired for lying under oath, recommended to Flynn that he not have a lawyer present when he was questioned by FBI agents.
Flynn’s lawyers also said that the FBI agents did not advise Flynn that lying to the FBI is a federal offense.
The third shock in the memo was that FBI agents didn’t file a report on the contents of the interview until seven months after it was conducted, a “virtually unprecedented” violation of internal policies, Marc Ruskin, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, told The Epoch Times. Mueller recommended no prison time for Flynn.
Flynn was serving as Trump’s national security adviser at the time of the interview, Jan. 24, 2017.
Trump also responded to the Flynn revelation on Dec. 13 via Twitter: “They gave General Flynn a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way he was treated—the FBI said he didn’t lie and they overrode the FBI.”
Trump was referring to how then-FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers that FBI agents didn’t think Flynn lied during the interview.
“They want to scare everybody into making up stories that are not true by catching them in the smallest of misstatements. Sad!” Trump added. “WITCH HUNT!”