Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen gets 36 months of jail

Washington, Dec 13: Michael Cohen, former lawyer of US President Donald Trump has been handed a jail term of 36 months over the special counsel's inquiry into the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen, who had once said that he would take a bullet for Trump, now has lashed out at the latter over his "dirty deeds".

The fifty-two-year Cohen, who had admitted lying to the Congress besides violating campaign violence and evading taxes, blamed the president saying that it was the latter who had made him to "follow a path of darkness rather than light".

Cohen said this to judge William Pauley on Wednesday, December 12. He also said that being blindly loyal to Trump was his weakness and he felt it was his responsibility "to cover up his dirty deeds".

The disgraced attorney will serve his term concurrently with a two-month sentence he was handed for lying to Congress about a possible real estate project of President Trump in Moscow, a charge which was brought by Robert Mueller, who is probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Cohen was given time till March 6 to report to Otisville prison in New York.

Cohen was also in the news over the allegations of paying hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels who claimed she had an affair with Trump before he became the president and was asked to keep her mouth shut about the alleged affair.