NEW YORK _ Michael Cohen can't fix this.
The embattled ex-attorney to President Donald Trump will almost certainly be sentenced to hard time in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday over the laundry list of crimes he's pleaded guilty to, according to legal experts.
The 52-year-old former fixer, who was once one of Trump's strongest advocates, has lost some of his swagger since copping a cooperation deal and flipping on his former patron in hopes of shaving some days off what could be a significant prison stretch.
But Cohen's less-than enthusiastic cooperation stuck in the craw of federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York.
The prosecutors have urged U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley to hand down a "substantial sentence" of between four and five years for the campaign finance crimes, perjury, tax and bank fraud Cohen has pleaded guilty to because they said he wasn't as forthcoming as they had hoped about his own crimes.
Former prosecutors said it's consequently all but certain Pauley will give him prison time at his sentencing in lower Manhattan on Wednesday morning.
"Southern District of New York judges certainly don't just do what prosecutors say they should do, but I think in Cohen's case, it seems more likely than not that he's going behind bars," Harry Sandick, a former assistant U.S. attorney for SDNY, told the Daily News.
Though Cohen was prosecuted by the SDNY, any leniency he will get will be through his separate cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller.
While acknowledging Cohen's crimes were serious, Mueller gave him some credit for cooperating in his investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia and said it should be reflected in the sentence.
However, Sandick said it's likely the SDNY recommendation will weigh heavier.
"Mueller's team isn't going to exist beyond a certain point," Sandick said. "(Pauley) has an institutional concern that lasts much longer than this one prosecution."
