Michael Cohen, Prez Trump's fixer, cuts a plea deal to fix his federal sentence between 46 to 63 months in federal prison

As reported here by USA Today, "Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and 'fixer' Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to charges including campaign finance fraud stemming from hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal." Here is more (with a little sentencing emphasis):

The 51-year-old Cohen entered the plea in federal court in New York on Tuesday. The other charges involve bank fraud and income tax evasion.  As part of his plea agreement, Cohen agreed not to challenge any sentence from 46 to 63 months.

Cohen's plea follows months of scrutiny from federal investigations and a falling out with the president, whom he previously said he'd "take a bullet" for. FBI raids in April sought bank records, communications with Trump's campaign and information on payments to Daniels and McDougal. Both women claimed Trump had affairs with them, which he denies.

The deal comes after reports that federal investigators were looking into whether Cohen committed bank and tax fraud worth more than $20 million, according to a media report. The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, said authorities were focusing on loans obtained for taxi businesses owned by Cohen and his family.

Investigators were also considering whether Cohen had violated campaign finance and other laws when he made financial arrangements to pay women to stay silent about alleged affairs with then-candidate Trump back in 2016.... Prosecutors had reportedly considered filing charges against Cohen by the end of August.

I have not yet seen the plea agreement (which I hope will soon be publicly available), but I assume from the line stressed above that the guideline calculation puts Cohen's offense level at least 23 under the federal sentencing guidelines. The guideline range for a first offender is 46-57 months at level 23 and is 51-63 months at level 24. The bottom and top of these ranges seem to be the basis for the range reportedly in Cohen's plea deal (and this shows, yet again, how the guidelines are always an integral part of plea negotiations and why I consider every federal sentence to be "based on" the guidelines in some way or another).

UPDATE: The folks at Lawfare now have collected here the criminal information, waiver of indictment and plea agreement in US v. Michael Cohen.  The eight-page plea agreement has lots of interesting sentencing elements, and here is language (from pp. 4-5) confirming my speculations above and highlighting why there will be no departure discussions but lots of 3553(a) discussion as sentencing approaches:

Based upon the calculations set forth above, the defendant's Guidelines range is either 51 to 63 months' imprisonment under the Government's calculations, or 46 to 57 months' imprisonment under the defendant's calculations. Accordingly, the stipulated Guidelines range is 46 to 63 months' imprisonment (the "Stipulated Guidelines Range")....

The parties agree that neither a downward nor an upward departure from the Stipulated Guidelines Range set forth above is warranted.  Accordingly, neither party will seek any departure or adjustment pursuant to the Guidelines that is not set forth herein. Nor will either party in any way suggest that the Probation Office or the Court consider such a departure or adjustment under the Guidelines.

The parties agree that either party may seek a sentence outside of the Stipulated Guidelines Range based upon the factors to be considered in imposing a sentence pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 3553(a).