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    Friday, May 10, 2024

    Michael Cohen offers to turn over hard drive files in bid for leniency

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen wants to give congressional Democrats more information in return for help in delaying his three-year prison sentence — scheduled to begin next month — or even reducing it.

    One of Cohen’s lawyers, Lanny Davis, said in a statement Thursday he has written to congressional committees telling them Cohen has “recently obtained” a hard drive with 14 million files from his computers and telephones over the past 10 years.

    Davis says the files contain material “which we believe has significant value to the various congressional oversight and investigation committees.”

    He goes on to note that Cohen’s recent public and closed-door testimony to congressional panels “has triggered additional areas for investigation by law enforcement authorities and the Congress.” Yet, he complains, Cohen is the only person from the Trump Organization who has been prosecuted.

    “The actions against Mr. Cohen appears to be selective prosecution and the sentence imposed is a disproportionate one,” said Davis — in what appears to be an appeal for Congress to step in and help persuade the Southern District of New York to give Cohen time to go through the newly discovered files.

    “For him to surrender in 30 days would be a detriment to committees’ search for truth, as well as a miscarriage of justice,” Davis added.

    Davis didn’t say in the statement how Cohen “obtained” the hard drive or from whom.

    There was no immediate response from the chairmen of two key House committees that Cohen has provided testimony to — the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Intelligence Committee.

    Cohen has pleaded guilty to charges of illegal campaign contributions related to payments to two women who alleged that they had affairs with Trump.

    He also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a proposed Trump tower in Moscow, saying the Trump Organization stopped pursuing the deal early in 2016 when the efforts actually continued well into that election year.

    Cohen said Trump “knew of and directed” negotiations for the project in Moscow “throughout the campaign and lied about it.”

    Before Cohen’s Feb. 27th testimony to the Oversight Committee, Trump posted a tweet that included accusations that “he is lying in order to reduce his prison time.”

    Cohen’s appearance before the Oversight Committee was televised nationally. During his day of testimony he laid out a series of allegations against his former boss as the panel’s Republicans assailed him as a convicted liar out to hurt the president and gain publicity.

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