President Donald Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, and his legal team have come up with a way for the former Trump affiliate to stay out of jail: by handing over multiple hard drives full of information that may be pertinent to Democrats' committee investigations. According to Axios, Cohen "has recently obtained a hard drive with 14 million files from his computers and phones over the past 10 years."
Cohen's attorneys asked for more time and congressional help to convince the Southern District of New York to postpone his jail time while the files are reviewed, CNN reported. Specifically, Cohen's team wants Democratic Committeemen to write letters on their client's behalf, saying he's cooperating with their investigation and his report to prison should be "substantially postponed."
According to the letter, "Mr. Cohen needs to be readily accessible and immediately available to provide ongoing assistance to Congress in order for it to fulfill its executive branch oversight responsibilities," something he cannot do if he's in prison.
Cohen testified in front of Congress last year, saying President Trump directed him to pay off women the president allegedly had an affair with. Cohen also accused Trump of financial fraud. He was convicted of financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Cohen's testimony is believed to be the reason Democrats are continuing investigations into Trump's past.
"Michael Cohen’s recent public and closed-door testimony to Congressional committees has triggered additional areas for investigation by law enforcement authorities and the Congress. In fact, Mr. Cohen has recently obtained a hard drive with 14 million files from his computers and phones over the past 10 years, which we believe has significant value to the various congressional oversight and investigation committees," Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, said in a statement. "Yet Michael Cohen is the only person in the Trump organization who has been prosecuted. The actions against Mr. Cohen appears to be selective prosecution and the sentence imposed is a disproportionate one. For him to surrender in 30 days would be a detriment to committees search for truth, as well as a miscarriage of justice."
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As of now, it's unclear what committees received Cohen's letter, although his attorneys did make it known the letter was only sent to Democrats.
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