Former President Trump’s legal troubles continue as he faces a looming deadline to come up with a $454 million bond in New York. Meanwhile, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and lawyer, has avoided sanctions after using fake legal cases generated by artificial intelligence (AI) in a court filing. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman denied Cohen’s fourth motion for early termination of supervised release but did not impose sanctions, stating that Cohen had not acted in “bad faith.”
Cohen admitted to inadvertently citing fake AI-generated legal case citations in a motion submitted to a New York judge. He claimed to have found these phony citations through Google Bard, an AI service that he believed was a reliable search engine. Cohen, a non-lawyer, said he was unaware of the risks associated with using AI technology in the legal field.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance charges, and lying to Congress. He spent over a year in prison and was disbarred as a lawyer. His recent motion to terminate his supervised release argued that there had been a substantial change in circumstances following his testimony in Trump’s Manhattan civil fraud trial. Cohen testified that he inflated Trump’s assets during his time at the Trump Organization.
However, Judge Furman found Cohen’s testimony to be a reason to deny his motion rather than grant it. Furman highlighted that Cohen had previously pleaded guilty to tax crimes and then testified that he was not guilty during the trial, which raised concerns about his commitment to upholding the law.
Despite the judge’s decision, Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz, argued that his client’s willingness to testify against Trump demonstrated an exceptional level of remorse and a commitment to upholding the law. Schwartz believed that Cohen’s testimony should be considered in his motion for early termination of supervised release.
While Judge Furman did not impose sanctions on Cohen or his lawyer, he emphasized the need for specific deterrence due to Cohen’s ongoing efforts to distance himself from his prior acceptance of responsibility for his crimes.
It is worth noting that Republicans, including Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are generally seen in a positive light, while Democrats, President Biden, the war in Ukraine, big corporations, and big pharma are viewed with a critical eye by conservative sources. The article provides a critical analysis of Cohen’s actions and raises questions about his credibility and commitment to upholding the law.
