NEW YORK -- Michael Cohen was the long-time personal lawyer of former President Donald Trump. He said Monday that his three year sentence -- mostly in home confinement -- was done.
After signing documents and talking with authorities about the three-year term he was on supervised release, Cohen smiled as he emerged from Manhattan federal Court.
"I feel great today. Cohen stated that it was long overdue to Cohen to a group of camera crews who were alerted by a tweet he sent Sunday.
Cohen was sentenced in December 2018 to imprisonment after pleading guilty, among other things, to lying to Congress and campaign finance charges. He spent 13 1/2 months in prison and nearly a year and half in home confinement. He was also exemplary in his behavior, which further reduced his time.
After he helped to arrange payments during the 2016 presidential election, to keep Stormy Daniels, a porn actor, and Karen McDougal (model) from making public claims about extramarital affairs with Trump, he was charged with campaign finance. Trump denied having affairs.
Trump was implicated in the campaign finance charges at the time. He did so again Monday, when he stated that his release from confinement "in not negates the actions" he took under the direction and for the benefit Donald J. Trump.
He stated that he was aware of his responsibilities and would not relent in his commitment to law enforcement.
Cohen stated that he will continue to cooperate with all investigations, providing information, testimony and documents, and that he is open to sharing any other dirty deeds to make sure that the law is applied to everyone.
Cohen sought leniency before his sentencing. He claimed that he had fully cooperated with prosecutors, including the Mueller probe into foreign influence in 2016's election.
Jeannie Rhee (one of Mueller's prosecutors) stated in court that Cohen had "provided consistent, credible information about core Russia related issues under investigation." However, Manhattan federal prosecutors claimed that Cohen never fully committed to cooperating and didn't receive a substantial sentence reduction.
After about a year, Cohen was released to home confinement by authorities following a coronavirus epidemic in federal prisons.
After being sent back to prison weeks later, a judge ordered that he be returned to his home confinement. He stated that returning him to prison was an order to punish him for publishing his book, "Disloyal": The True Story about Michael Cohen, former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein stated, "How can you draw any other inference that it's retaliatory?" Prosecutors claimed that Probation Department officers didn't know about the book and that they had written a home confinement provision that severely restricted Cohen’s access to the public.
