Michael Cohen wants prison time reduced for co-operation

NEW YORK – Michael Cohen wants his three-year prison sentence reduced as a reward for providing authorities information about alleged misdeeds by President Donald Trump, even while he’s been behind bars.

In court papers filed on Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, Cohen claimed in an affirmation that his continuing co-operation has included spending 10 hours with representatives from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. during three meetings at a minimum security prison northwest of New York City. The former personal attorney for Trump said he was asked to help “corroborate the claims and actions” related to Vance’s subpoena of Trump’s tax returns, an effort that the president is seeking to have blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The documents ask for a court hearing so lawyers for Cohen can argue he deserves to either have a sentence that he began serving in May knocked down to one year and one day or be allowed to serve out his existing term under house arrest.

“For a man married 25 years with two children, being incarcerated is a powerful and humbling punishment,” he said in the statement.

Both federal and state prosecutors declined comment on Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors have said Trump directed Cohen to arrange the payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the run-up to the 2016 election. Trump denies having trysts with either woman.

Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Moscow, to bank fraud and tax evasion charges.