The sentencing of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former “fixer” and personal attorney, could hang over the president’s search for a new White House chief of staff.

After all, on one of the counts that put Cohen in prison for three years, Cohen contends he was merely following his former client’s direction. And in an emotional statement in a New York courtroom Wednesday, Cohen blamed his actions on a “blind loyalty” to the president that he said “led me to choose a path of darkness over light.”

“Time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” he said, according to media accounts from inside the room.

While cleaning up a president’s “dirty deeds” is not exactly in the chief of staff’s job description, the person Trump chooses to replace the soon-to-depart John Kelly will have to be loyal to the president and follow his orders.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said as much Tuesday.