In his newly released book, former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz outlines a potential cooperation agreement with former "fixer" Michael Cohen that could go up in smoke thanks to prosecutors' strict and inflexible rules for cooperation.
In his recently released book People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, Pomerantz explains that for Cohen to be allowed to cooperate, protocol demanded that he confess to anything he'd ever done in his life that was illegal and be willing to plead guilty for it.
It didn't matter if those crimes were about trying cannabis in college or committing crimes on behalf of Donald Trump.
"After pleading guilty to everything, the would-be cooperator then had to agree to cooperate fully, testifying and meeting with the prosecutors whenever necessary," he continues. "The cooperator would not be sentenced until all the testimony and meetings were done, which could be years in the future. The payoff would be the government’s agreement to recommend leniency to the sentencing judge. The judge, however, was not obliged to accept the government’s recommendation; he or she could 'throw the book' at the cooperator at the time of sentencing, even increasing the sentence to take into account the crimes that no one might have learned about but for the cooperator’s baring of his soul in order to become a cooperator."
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The theory is that, by taking responsibility for any and all crimes, the cooperator will be looked on by the jury as a more sympathetic person.
It's a protocol he acknowledges keeps a lot of people from being willing to come forward to help in cases. To make matters worse, the sentencing is put on hold until after the cooperation is over.
"The protocol also deters would-be cooperators who will not confess to conduct that the government does not know about, or conduct that implicates family or friends, or conduct that the potential cooperator denies or does not think was illegal," the book goes on. "Cohen, by his own admission, had helped Donald Trump lie, cheat, and steal in myriad ways over the course of many years. Expecting him to dredge up every instance of wrongdoing, and to plead guilty to all of it, was perhaps too much. Also, Cohen had been involved in business deals away from Donald Trump, and the government had seized documents and electronic data from him and placed his business life under a microscope. There were transactions that the government thought were criminal and that Cohen maintained were innocent."
Ahead of the publication of the Pomerantz book, Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, issued a statement saying that he would continue to cooperate with the DA's office and the attorney general.
"We were treated respectfully and professionally by Mr. Mark Pomerantz and his team. We appreciate their integrity and hard work. Despite the denied allegations concerning Mr. Cohen's credibility, I can confirm that Mr. Cohen will continue to cooperate with DA Bragg and his team, speaking truth to power — as he has always done."
The book, People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, is on sale Tuesday, and Raw Story has full coverage of it here.
