VII. The Villain of His Story

Credits

+ Produced, composed, engineered, and mixed by Henry Bloomfield
+ Bass, drums, guitar, keyboard, vocals, programming, and lyrical arrangement by Henry Bloomfield
+ Lyrics by Michael Cohen, Guy Petrillo, and Robert Mueller III
+ Mixed by Henry Bloomfield
+ Mastered by Brian Lucey
+ Photography by IowaPolitics.com

Verse 1
Well¹ I have been living
In a personal
And mental
Incarceration
I blame myself for the conduct
Which has brought me here today²

My family has suffered
Immeasurably in the home³
And a blind loyalty led me to
Darkness over light⁴

But⁵ I still stand today
And I am committed
To proving my integrity
And ensuring⁶

Chorus 1
History will not remember me as
The villain of his story⁷
I take full responsibility for each act
That I pled guilty to⁸
Owning this mistake will free me to be⁹
Who¹⁰ I really am¹¹
I stand before your Honor
Humbly and painfully aware¹² that my actions
Brought shame upon my family¹³

Verse 2
Most all I want to apologize to
The people of the U.S.
You deserve to know truth
And lying to you was unjust¹⁴

There is no sentence that could supersede
The suffering that I live with¹⁵
And so¹⁶ I¹⁷ plead¹⁸
Your Honor, this may seem hard to believe
But today is the most meaningful day of my¹⁹

Chorus 2
History will not remember me as
The villain of his story²⁰
I take full responsibility for each act
That I pled guilty to²¹
It will be my life’s work to make it right²²
I put family first²³
I stand before my children²⁴
Humbly and painfully²⁵
And this breaks my heart²⁶
My pride and joy²⁷
I am truly sorry²⁸

Outro
Owning this mistake will free me to be²⁹
Who³⁰ I really am³¹
I love my family more than anything³²
And I thank you, your Honor
And I promise, I will be better³³

¹ Michael Cohen: “I now know that every action I take in the future has to be well thought out and with honorable intention because I wish to leave no room for future mistakes in my life” (p. 29 of “Transcript of Sentencing Hearing, US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 689 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

² Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

³ Cohen (p. 29 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 689 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

⁴ Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

⁵ Guy Petrillo: “I submit, your Honor, that no other defendant would be treated in this fashion on these offenses, but Mr. Cohen had the misfortune to have been counsel to the President” (p. 15 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 675 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

⁶ Cohen (p. 29 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 689 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

⁷ Cohen (p. 29 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 689 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

⁸ Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

⁹ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹⁰ Petrillo: “He [Michael] has been the key figure at a Manhattan private school in the raising of funds committed to financial aid for students without means to attend and who otherwise would not be able to attend absent his efforts (p. 9 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 669 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹¹ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹² Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹³ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹⁴ Cohen (p. 29 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 689 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹⁵ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹⁶ “Cohen was concerned that Russian officials were not actually involved or were not interested in meeting with him (as Sater had alleged), and so he decided not to go to the Forum [the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum] (p. 78 of “TMR,” V. I [p. 140 of TWP edition])

¹⁷ Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

¹⁸ “In January 2018, Manafort told Gates [longtime associate of Paul Manafort who pleaded guilty in February 2018 to conspiring against the USA] that he had talked to the President’s personal counsel and they were ‘going to take care of us.’ Manafort told Gates it was stupid to plead…” (p. 123 of “TMR,” V. I [p. 389 of TWP edition])

¹⁹ Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²⁰ Cohen (p. 29 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 689 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²¹ Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²² Cohen (p. 29 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 689 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²³ Cohen (p. 28 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 688 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²⁴ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²⁵ Cohen (p. 26 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 686 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²⁶ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²⁷ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²⁸ Cohen (p. 30 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 690 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

²⁹ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

³⁰ Cohen: “Again, I want to thank my family, my friends, many who are here today, who are with me, especially all the people who wrote letters on my behalf. In addition, I would like to thank the tens of thousands of strangers who despite not knowing me at all, not knowing me personally have shown kindness and empathy in writing letters to me and offering support and prayer” (p. 30 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 690 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

³¹ Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

³² Cohen (p. 27 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 687 of “TMR,” TWP edition])

³³ Cohen (p. 30 of “US v. Michael Cohen,” [p. 690 of “TMR,” TWP edition])