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Gov't Sentencing Memo on Cohen: Mostly Bluster

The US Attorney's office for the SDNY berates Michael Cohen for his "selective cooperation" in its latest sentencing memo. It then repeatedly asks for a "substantial sentence"

Except, don't miss the part where it says it concurs with the Probation Department that his guideline range is 51 to 63 months. It also says probation is recommending a downward variance to 42 months. It then agrees he should receive some sort of downward variance for his cooperation:

And while the Office agrees that Cohen should receive credit for his assistance in the SCO investigation, that credit should not approximate the credit a traditional cooperating witness would receive, given, among other reasons, Cohen’s affirmative decision not to become one. For these reasons, the Office respectfully requests that this Court impose a substantial term of imprisonment, one that reflects a modest downward variance from the applicable Guidelines range (my emphasis).

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So the Government is sending the Judge the signal it is requesting Cohen get a sentence between 3 1/2 and 4 years(or between 42 and 48 months - since it agrees his sentence should be less than 51 months) and calls that a substantial sentence. That's a kiss for what Cohen did. Good for Cohen for doing it his way.

While Cohen is asking for time served, I doubt even his lawyers think that's a possibility. Here's his plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to 8 counts with a maximum sentence of 65 years.

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