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Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has hit out at the sentence of probation given to attorney Sidney Powell in the Trump election tampering case in Georgia.
Cohen said it was in huge contrast to the six-year sentence imposed on him by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York [SDNY] for allegedly helping Trump make hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Daniels alleges that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, but the former president denies it.
In a crude post on X, formerly Twitter, Cohen said: "Probation for trying to overturn a free and fair election versus SDNY forcing me to plead and receiving 6 years... I call bulls**t!"
On Thursday, Powell pleaded guilty to reduced charges for attempted tampering with the 2020 election results in Georgia.
She was among the 18 co-defendants charged alongside Trump for violating Georgia's racketeering laws in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation. She will be required to serve six years of probation and pay a $6,000 fine and $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia.
She will also have to testify against her co-defendants—including Trump—as part of the plea deal.
Bail bondsman Scott Hall has also pleaded guilty to several misdemeanors in the case. The conditions of his deal also included a requirement to testify against other co-defendants.
Trump and 16 others indicted in Willis' probe have pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them.
Cohen contrasted Powell's case with his own, in which he took a plea deal that came with a recommendation of a three-to-six year jail term.
In the end, Cohen was jailed for three years with an additional three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress.
In November 2021, he walked free after serving his sentence and has remained an implacable opponent of the former president.
Donald Trump has threatened Cohen with a $500 million defamation lawsuit but withdrew from the case this month.
He had accused Cohen of "spreading falsehoods" that were "likely to be embarrassing or detrimental" and of violating New York rules of professional conduct for attorneys.
Trump was scheduled to sit for a deposition on Monday, October 9. The original deposition had been delayed so the former president could attend the opening days of the New York Attorney General's $250 million lawsuit against the former president.
Court documents show that Trump dropped the defamation case earlier this month without clarifying further. His office said in a statement that his schedule, including a civil fraud trial in New York, campaigning across the country for the presidency, and facing four criminal trials, meant he was unable to continue the suit against Cohen.
About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more