美国国家公共电台 NPR Donald Trump's Attorney And Fixer Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty To 8 Federal Counts

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This morning we are looking at the cases of two Trump¹ associates, both declared guilty of multiple crimes in two different courtrooms in two different states at around the same time yesterday afternoon. One was Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. The other, who we're going to focus on now, is Michael Cohen. He served for years as Donald Trump's personal lawyer and self-described fixer. Yesterday in federal court in Manhattan, Cohen pleaded guilty to financial crimes and other offenses². And let's talk this through with NPR justice reporter Ryan Lucas. Hi, Ryan.

RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE³: Good morning.

GREENE: OK. So what exactly did Cohen plead guilty to here?

LUCAS: To eight felony charges in all. There are five counts for tax evasion⁴. Basically, Cohen carried out a scheme to evade⁵ taxes from the years 2012 to 2016, didn't report about 4 million in income, which allowed him to avoid about $1.4 million in taxes. There's one count of false statements to a bank. That's in connection with an application for a home equity⁶ line of credit. And then there are the two final charges, and these are for campaign finance violations⁷. And these are significant because they tie back into Trump.

GREENE: OK. These are significant. They tie back to Trump. They're related to Cohen's role in payments made to two women for their silence about alleged⁸ affairs with the president. The women are not named in the court papers, but we are sure that it's Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who we've heard about before, right?

LUCAS: That's right. The women weren't named yesterday. The facts, though, line up with the payments that were made to McDougal - she's the former Playboy playmate - and to Daniels, who is an adult film star. Now, the specific charges here are causing an unlawful corporate⁹ contribution and an excessive campaign contribution. But what that basically breaks down to is this, that Cohen played a role in getting the parent company of the National Enquirer¹⁰ tabloid¹¹ to pay $150,000 for the rights to McDougal's story about her alleged affair with Trump.

And then with Daniels, Cohen paid $130,000 himself with a shell company - through a shell company. Now, both payments happened in the run-up to the 2016 election. Court papers make clear that these payments were made to kill the stories and, quote, "influence the election." And at his court hearing yesterday in New York, Cohen said that he made those payments in coordination¹² and at the direction of the candidate. That, of course, is Donald Trump.

GREENE: Which leads to the big question that we're asking now. Could Trump be in legal trouble himself now?

LUCAS: Well, Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, is certainly suggesting as much. He asked rhetorically yesterday, if those payments were a crime for Cohen, why wouldn't they be a crime for Trump as well? Now, we're hearing a different tune¹³, of course, from Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani says there's no allegation of wrongdoing by the president in the Cohen charges. And as he has in the past, Giuliani is also going after Cohen's credibility, saying that there's been a pattern of lies and dishonesty from Cohen.

Now, what the lawyers are saying, let's set that aside. It is significant that Cohen implicated¹⁴ Trump. That is a big deal. Right now, we only have Cohen's word. Former prosecutors¹⁵ say that there would need to be other evidence to corroborate¹⁶ this. We would need to know how involved Trump was, how much he knew and so on. And as for immediate¹⁷ legal trouble, remember, the Justice Department has current guidance that says, basically, that a sitting president cannot be indicted¹⁸. So that insulates Trump for now from direct legal peril¹⁹.

GREENE: Is Cohen going to cooperate with prosecutors here?

LUCAS: There's nothing in his plea agreement that talks about cooperation, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't cooperate in the future. And that includes, of course, cooperation potentially with special counsel Robert Mueller.

GREENE: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks for all of this.

LUCAS: Thank you.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 evasion   

n.逃避，偷漏(税)

参考例句：

• The movie star is in prison for tax evasion.那位影星因为逃税而坐牢。
• The act was passed as a safeguard against tax evasion.这项法案旨在防止逃税行为。

5 evade   

vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避

参考例句：

• He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
• You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人，你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？

6 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

7 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

8 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

9 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

10 enquirer   

寻问者，追究者

参考例句：

• The "National Enquirer" blazoned forth that we astronomers had really discovered another civilization. 《国民询问者》甚至宣称，我们天文学家已真正发现了其它星球上的文明。
• Should we believe a publication like the national enquirer? 我们要相信像《国家探秘者》之类的出版物吗？

11 tabloid   

adj.轰动性的，庸俗的；n.小报，文摘

参考例句：

• He launched into a verbal assault on tabloid journalism.他口头对小报新闻进行了抨击。
• He believes that the tabloid press has behaved disgracefully.他认为小报媒体的行为不太光彩。

12 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

13 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

14 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

16 corroborate   

v.支持，证实，确定

参考例句：

• He looked at me anxiously,as if he hoped I'd corroborate this.他神色不安地看着我，仿佛他希望我证实地的话。
• It appeared that what he said went to corroborate my account.看来他所说的和我叙述的相符。

17 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

18 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

19 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。