Lawrence native Michael Cohen heads to prison
Lawrence native Michael Cohen, who was convicted of several felonies in August and sentenced to three years in December, is expected to report to upstate Otisville in Orange County, a minimum federal security prison on May 6.
Cohen was found guilty of breaking campaign finance laws, tax evasion and lying Congress, among other charges. He was also ordered to pay $1.39 million in restitution, forfeit $500,000 and pay a $50,000 fine. The guilty pleas to the federal felony charges resulted in his disbarment as a lawyer in New York state.
Serving as Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Cohen, 52, arranged six-figure payments to a porn star known as Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, to buy their silence about their one-time affairs with the president.
Federal Correctional Institution Otisville, a medium security facility, is considered one of the country’s more comfortable prisons, based on a 2009 Forbes survey. It is frequently requested as the desired place by observant Jewish inmates because of the availability of a full-time rabbi and kosher food. It is also favored by those who live in or near New York City, like Cohen a Manhattan resident, as a commuter train ride is a little more than an hour.
Otisville, which also has an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp and detention center has a total of 838 inmates, all men — 726 at the FCI and center and 112 at the camp — according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
In late February and early March, Cohen testified on Capitol Hill. He met privately with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Feb. 26. He met in a public session before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Feb. 27 and now a closed meeting with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Feb. 28. Cohen then testified before the House Intelligence Committee again on March 6.
During Cohen’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee, he said, “I am a fool,” in response to a question about his unseemly work for Trump.
On his LinkedIn profile, Cohen continues to list himself as a lawyer since June 1992, personal attorney to the president from January 2017 to June 2018 and executive vice president and special counsel to Trump, the Trump Organization from May 2007 to June 2018.
On April 24, the Wall Street Journal first reported that actor Tom Arnold recorded a telephone call between him and Cohen on March 25, with Cohen’s permission, Arnold said. On the tape Cohen said that one of his guilty pleas is a lie. There “is no tax evasion,” Cohen said.
In an April 18 tweet, Cohen said, “Soon I will be ready to address the American people again … tell it all … and tell it myself,” in relation to the Mueller Report.
The GoFundMe page begun in August to help pay Cohen’s legal costs reports that $212,582 has been pledged.
