US Atty: Cohen Paid Hush Money to Two Women, Sought Reimbursement Via False Invoices

‘In addition, what he did was coerce to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate, and the campaign’

EXCERPT: 

KHUZAMI: “New York office of the IRS. Also, the prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office and the southern district of New York who prosecuted the Cohen Matter, I will have a brief statement and will not be taking any questions. Today, as you heard, Michael Cohen pled guilty to eight felony charges. Five of those dealt with tax evasion for the years 2012-2016, in which he failed to report approximately $4.1 million in reported income. Approximately $2.5 million of that money was from interest payments from a personal loan that he failed to report, approximately $1.3 million of that money was from the operation of his taxi medallion business. Approximately $100,000 of that money was from brokerage commissions, and over $200,000 was from consulting fees. That is over $4.3 million, over a five-year period which translates into a loss to the United States Treasury of approximately $1.3 million. In addition, in count six, Mr. Cohen pled guilty to making false statements from a financial institution in connection with an application for a home equity line of credit. In that application, he failed to disclose more than $14 million in debts that he had, and as a result of that concealment, he obtained that $5,000 line of credit, which he would not have been entitled to, had he been candid and honest. In addition, Mr. Cohen pled guilty to two campaign finance charges. One for causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and a second one for personally making an excessive personal contribution, both for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election. In addition, what he did was he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate, and the campaign. In addition, Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement for that money by submitting invoices to the candidate's company which were untrue and false. They indicated that the reimbursement was for services rendered for the year 2017, when in fact those invoices were a sham. He provided no legal services for the year 2017, and it was simply a means to obtain reimbursement for the unlawful campaign contribution. A couple of points that I would like to make. First, these are very serious charges and reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over an extended period of time. They are significant in their own right, they are particularly significant when done by a lawyer. A lawyer, who through training and tradition, understands what it means to be a lawyer and to engage in honest and fair dealings in adherence to the law."

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