President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison Dec. 12 after pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance law, organizing hush-money payments and lying to Congress. After special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election came out with evidence of his participation in these crimes, Cohen confessed.

During the election, Cohen confessed to involvement in a cover-up scheme in which he paid women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump so that they would remain silent in order to increase Trump’s chances of being elected president. Additionally, in an agreement with prosecutors, Cohen admitted to lying to Congress about the timing of Trump’s negotiations regarding real estate in Moscow during his campaign.

Upon being sentenced, Cohen condemned Trump, saying that Trump told him to break the law and that his devotion to Trump led him to commit these crimes. According to New York Times article “Michael Cohen Sentenced to 3 Years After Implicating Trump in Hush-Money Scandal,” before being sentenced, Cohen said to the judge, “I blame myself for the conduct which has brought me here today, and it was my own weakness and a blind loyalty to [Trump] that led me to choose a path of darkness over light.”

Cohen implicated Trump in his crimes. He said that “of course” Trump knew the payments were morally wrong and illegal, according to NPR. Cohen also said, “I will not be the villain of his story,” regarding the president.

Cohen urges the American public to believe that he is now telling the truth, according to the NPR article “Michael Cohen On Trump In TV Interview: ‘The Man Doesn’t Tell The Truth.’” He said, “There’s a substantial amount of information that they possess that corroborates the fact that I am telling the truth.”