Michael Dean Cohen (born August 25, 1966) is an American lawyer who served as an attorney for

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

, the 45th and 47th

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

, from 2006 to 2018. Cohen served as vice president of

the Trump Organization The Trump Organization, Inc. is an American Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Privately owned by Donald Trump, it serves as the holding company for most of Business career of Donald Trump, Trump's business ventures and investments, with ar ...

and personal counsel to Trump, often being described as his fixer. Cohen served as of Trump Entertainment and was a board member of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children's health charity. From 2017 to 2018, Cohen was deputy finance chairman of the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...

. Trump employed Cohen until May 2018, a year after the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections began. In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts including campaign-finance violations,

tax fraud Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trust (property), trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax au ...

, and

bank fraud Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many ins ...

. Cohen said he violated campaign-finance laws at Trump's direction "for the principal purpose of influencing" the 2016 presidential election. In November 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to U.S. congressional committees about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for people who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), people considered dangerous (Brazil), or those sen ...

and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. In February 2019, the

New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The state is geographically divided into four judicial departments of the Appellate Division. The full title of each is, u ...

, disbarred him from practicing law in the state. In May 2019, he reported to the federal prison near Otisville, New York. In November 2021, he completed his sentence. In early 2019, Cohen sued the Trump Organization for allegedly failing to reimburse his legal fees; in July 2023, the parties reached a settlement ahead of a planned trial. In early 2023, Trump sued Cohen for allegedly breaching his legal trust; in October 2023, Trump dropped the suit ahead of a planned deposition.

Early life and education

Cohen was raised in the town of Lawrence on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, New York. His mother was a nurse, and his father, a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

, was a surgeon. Cohen is

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

. He attended Woodmere Academy and received his BA from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

in 1988 and his JD from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1991.

Career

Law

Cohen began practicing personal injury law in New York in 1992, working for Melvyn Estrin in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. In 2006, Cohen was a partner at the law firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon. He practiced law at the firm for about a year before joining

The Trump Organization The Trump Organization, Inc. is an American Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Privately owned by Donald Trump, it serves as the holding company for most of Business career of Donald Trump, Trump's business ventures and investments, with ar ...

. Following his 2018 felony convictions, Cohen was disbarred in New York.

Business

In 2003, Cohen was a candidate for

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...

when he provided a biography to the New York City Campaign Finance Board for inclusion in its voters' guide. The guide listed him as co-owner of Taxi Funding Corp. and a fleet of New York City taxicabs numbering over 200. At the time, Cohen was a business partner in the taxi business with "taxi king" Simon Garber. He was also CEO of MLA Cruises, Inc., and of the Atlantic Casino. As of 2017, Cohen was estimated to own at least 34 taxi medallions through 17

limited liability companies A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

(LLCs). Until April 2017, another "taxi king", disbarred attorney and convicted

felon A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that ...

Gene Freidman, managed the medallions still held by Cohen; this arrangement ended after the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission decided not to renew Freidman's licenses. Between April and June 2017, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance filed seven tax warrants against Cohen and his wife for $37,434 in unpaid taxi taxes due to the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...

. Cohen has been involved in real estate ventures in Manhattan, including the purchase and sale of four apartment buildings between 2011 and 2014. The total purchase price of the four buildings was $11 million and the total sales price was $32 million. Cohen sold the four properties at above their assessed values, in all-cash transactions, to LLCs owned by persons whose identities are not public. After this was reported by McClatchy DC in October 2017, Cohen said that all four properties were purchased by an American-owned "New York real estate family fund" that paid cash for the properties in order to obtain a tax-deferred (Section 1031) exchange, but did not specifically identify the buyer. In 2015, Cohen purchased an

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

apartment building for $58 million.

Politics

Cohen volunteered for the 1988 presidential campaign of

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis ( ; born November 3, 1933) is an American politician and lawyer who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and only the s ...

. He was also an intern for Congressman

Joe Moakley John Joseph Moakley (April 27, 1927 – May 28, 2001) was an American politician who served as the United States representative for Massachusetts's 9th congressional district from 1973 until his death in 2001. Moakley won the seat from incumbent ...

and voted for

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in 2008, although he later stated that he became disappointed with Obama. In 2003, he unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for the

's 4th council district. (a Manhattan district). Cohen received 4,205 votes and was defeated by Democratic candidate Eva S. Moskowitz, who received 13,745 votes. In 2010, Cohen briefly campaigned for a seat in the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

. He was a registered Democrat until he officially registered as a Republican on March 9, 2017. On October 11, 2018, Cohen as a Democrat to distance "himself from the values of the current" administration.

Donald Trump

Cohen joined the Trump Organization in late 2006. Trump hired him in part because he was already an admirer of Trump, having read Trump's ''

The Art of the Deal ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' twice. He had purchased several Trump properties and convinced his own parents and in-laws, as well as a business partner, to buy condominiums in Trump World Tower. Cohen aided Trump in his struggle with the condominium board at the Trump World Tower, which led Trump to obtain control of the board. Cohen became a close confidant to Trump, maintaining an office near him at

Trump Tower Trump Tower is a 58-story, mixed-use condominium skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, between East 56th and 57th Streets. The building contains the headquarters for the Trump Organiza ...

. However, Cohen, who continued to serve as a lawyer for other clients, was not employed by the Trump Organization's legal department and instead answered directly to Trump as a personal lawyer. In 2008, Cohen was named chief operating officer of

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

promotion company Affliction Entertainment, in which Trump held a significant financial stake. While Cohen was an executive at the Trump Organization, he was known as Trump's "pit bull". In late 2011, when Trump was publicly speculating about running for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, Cohen the website "Should Trump Run?" to draft Trump into entering the race. In a 2011 interview with

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, Cohen stated, "If somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn't like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump's benefit. If you do something wrong, I'm going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I'm not going to let you go until I'm finished." In 2013, Cohen sent an email to the satirical news website ''

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is currently based in Chicago, but originated as a weekly print publication ...

'', demanding that an article it had published mocking Trump ("When You're Feeling Low, Just Remember I'll Be Dead In About 15 or 20 Years") be removed with an apology, claiming it was

defamatory Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

. In 2015, in response to an inquiry by reporter Tim Mak of ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'' concerning rape allegations (brought up in the 1980s but later recanted) by Ivana Trump about her then-husband Donald Trump, Cohen said, "I'm warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I'm going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting." In April 2016, along with Darrell C. Scott, Cohen was a of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. Peter J. Gleason, a lawyer who filed for protection of documents pertaining to two women with sexual-abuse allegations against Eric T. Schneiderman, stated—without offering details or corroborating evidence—that Cohen told him that if Trump had been elected governor of New York in 2013, the latter would have helped bring the accusations to public attention. In mid-2016, Cohen defended Trump against allegations of

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

. Later that year, part of a video interview of Cohen by CNN's Brianna Keilar went viral, in which Cohen said "Says who?" several times in response to Keilar's statement that Trump was behind in all of the polls. In May 2024, Cohen testified that while he did not desire a job based in Washington D.C. and wanted to remain in New York, he did hope to become a personal lawyer to the President. He also testified that his relationship with Trump began deteriorating when he cut his 2016 bonus by two-thirds and kept refusing to make him a personal lawyer to the President after he took office. In further testimony, Cohen stated that he would remain loyal to Trump even after the FBI raid on his home and office, until his wife, daughter and son persuaded him to no longer lie on Trump's behalf. Soon after the family meeting occurred, Cohen entered a plea of guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. In July 2024, Cohen asked the Supreme Court to allow him to sue Trump. Cohen claimed that Trump had retaliated against him by having him sent back to prison after his 2020 release, following his announcement that he would write a book criticizing Trump. Lower courts had previously dismissed his lawsuit. In October, the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.

Regarding Russia

In January 2016, according to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', Cohen sent an email to Russian politician

Dmitry Peskov Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov (, ; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat serving as the Kremlin Press Secretary, spokesman for President of Russia, Russian president Vladimir Putin since 2012. The January 2017 Steele dossier alleges that Cohen met with Russian officials in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, in 2016 with the objective of paying those who had hacked the DNC and to "cover up all traces of the hacking". The dossier contains raw intelligence, and is thought to be a mix of accurate and inaccurate information. Cohen denied the allegations, stating that he was in Los Angeles between August 23 and 29, and in New York for the entire month of September. According to a Czech intelligence source, there is no record of him directly entering Prague by plane, although he ostensibly could have taken

land transport Land transport is the transport or movement of people, animals or goods from one location to another location on land. This is in contrast with other main types of transport such as maritime transport and aviation. The two main forms of land tr ...

from a neighboring country within the

Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) encompasses European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their common borders. As an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) policy of the European Union (EU), it ...

of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU), the initial entry into which would have been recorded. On April 13, 2018,

McClatchy Newspapers McClatchy Media Company, or simply McClatchy and MCC, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Originally based in Sacramento, California, United States, and known as The McClatchy Company, it ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, bureau reported that Special Counsel

Robert Mueller Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013. A graduate of Princeton University and New York University, Mueller served a ...

had evidence (including two sources) that Cohen travelled to Prague from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in mid-to-late 2016, which itself would not have required a passport stamp. Cohen again denied ever traveling to Prague or to the EU in August 2016. In December 2018, McClatchy reported that in mid-to-late 2016 a cellphone of Cohen's was detected around Prague and that an

eastern European Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and ...

intelligence agency had intercepted a Russian communication saying that Cohen was in Prague. The 2019 Mueller report claimed that "Cohen ... never traveled to Prague and was not concerned about those allegations, which he believed were provably false". In late January 2017, Cohen met with Ukrainian opposition politician Andrey Artemenko and

Felix Sater Felix Henry Sater (born Felix Mikhailovich Sheferovsky; ; March 2, 1966) is a Russian-American mobster, convicted felon, real estate developer and former managing director of Bayrock Group LLC, a real estate conglomerate based out of New Yor ...

at the Loews Regency in Manhattan to discuss a plan to lift sanctions against Russia. The proposed plan would require that Russian forces withdraw from eastern Ukraine and that Ukraine hold a referendum on whether

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

should be "leased" to Russia for 50 or 100 years. Cohen was given a written proposal in a sealed envelope that he delivered to then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn in early February. In May 2017, amidst expanding inquiries into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, two congressional panels asked Cohen to provide information about any communications he had with people connected to the Russian government. He was a subject of the Mueller investigation in 2018. Because of these investigations, Cohen and Trump signed a joint defense agreement allowing their attorneys to share information during the Mueller investigations and joint defense agreements were arranged between Trump and both Flynn and

Paul Manafort Paul John Manafort Jr. (; born April 1, 1949) is an American former lobbyist, political consultant, and attorney. A long-time Republican Party campaign consultant, he chaired the Trump presidential campaign from June to August 2016. Manafo ...

. Cohen retained an attorney with Davidoff Hutcher & Citron who later also represented

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...

Payment to Stormy Daniels

In late 2016, adult-film actress

Stormy Daniels Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford (born Stephanie A. Gregory; March 17, 1979), known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic film actress, Film director, director and former stripper. She has won many industry awards and is a ...

(

legal name A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of registration of the birth and which then ...

Stephanie Clifford) was speaking to some reporters and said that she had had a sexual affair with Trump in 2006. In October, Cohen and Daniels' attorney Keith M. Davidson negotiated a

non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract or part of a contract between at le ...

(NDA) under which she was to be paid $130,000 hush money. Cohen created a Delaware LLC called Essential Consultants and used it to pay the $130,000. The arrangement was reported by ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' in January 2018. Cohen told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in February 2018 that he paid the $130,000 to Daniels from his own pocket; he also said that the payment was not a campaign contribution and he was not reimbursed by either the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign. ''The Washington Post'' later noted that, by stating that he used his own money to "facilitate" the payment, Cohen was not ruling out the possibility that Trump, as an individual, reimbursed Cohen for the payment. In April 2018, Trump acknowledged for the first time that Cohen had represented him in the Daniels case, after previously having denied knowledge of the $130,000 payment. On March 5, ''The Wall Street Journal'' cited anonymous sources recounting Cohen as saying he missed two deadlines to pay Daniels because Cohen "couldn't reach Mr. Trump in the hectic final days of the presidential campaign", and that after Trump's election, Cohen had complained that he had not been reimbursed for the payment. Cohen described this report as "

fake news Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person ...

". On March 9,

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

reported that Cohen had used his Trump Organization email to negotiate with Daniels regarding her NDA, and that Cohen had used the same Trump Organization email to arrange for a transfer for funds that would eventually lead to Daniels' payment. In response, Cohen acknowledged that he had transferred funds from his

home equity line of credit A home equity line of credit, or HELOC ( /ˈhiːˌlɒk/ ''HEE-lok''), is a revolving type of secured loan in which the lender agrees to lend a maximum amount within an agreed period (called a term), where the collateral is the borrower's proper ...

to the LLC and from the LLC to Daniels' attorney. In a March 25, 2018, interview with ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

'', Daniels said that she and Trump had sex once, and that later she had been threatened in front of her infant daughter and felt pressured to later sign an NDA. Includes video and transcript. On March 26, David Schwarz, a lawyer for Cohen, told ABC's ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'' that Daniels was lying in the ''60 Minutes'' interview. Cohen's lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter claiming that Daniels' statements constituted "libel per se and intentional infliction of emotional distress" to Cohen. Cohen initiated a private arbitration case against Daniels in February 2018, based on an NDA signed by Daniels in October 2016 in exchange for $130,000. Cohen obtained an order from an arbitrator barring Daniels from publicly discussing her alleged relationship with Trump. Daniels subsequently brought a lawsuit in federal court against Trump and Cohen, arguing that the NDA was legally invalid because Trump never signed it. Cohen responded by seeking to compel arbitration, which would avoid public proceedings. In April 2018, Cohen filed a declaration in the court saying that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in the Daniels lawsuit. On May 18, lawyers for Cohen filed an objection to Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti being allowed to represent her in a case involving Cohen, claiming it (the objection) was based on the violations of ethical rules and local court rules, among other issues. After Cohen's August 2018 conviction, Trump stated that the payment to Daniels came from him personally and not from the campaign during a Fox & Friends interview. On May 13, 2024, Cohen directly implicated Trump when he testified during Trump's New York criminal trial that Trump directed him to make the hush money payment to Daniels and also signed off on Allen Weisselberg's plan on how to reimburse him. Cohen would also bring up his history in dealing with the Daniels allegation and planning out the non-disclosure agreement, including his suggestion to include a clause ensuring that Daniels would required to pay $1,000,000 for every time she violated the agreement by telling her story. He would also bring up conversations he had with Trump and people tied to Trump and Daniels as well. On May 14, 2024, Cohen admitted to pressuring Daniels attorney Keith Davidson to get Daniels to sign the statement where she denied the affair, stating he knew the statement was false. According to Cohen, Daniels wanted an appearance on Fox News'

Hannity ''Hannity'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative television political Talk show, talk program on Fox News hosted by Sean Hannity. Episodes air live at 9:00 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, while episodes that ai ...

, though she would end up not doing the interview.

Recording of discussion regarding Karen McDougal

In late 2016, Karen McDougal, a former ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' model, claimed that she and Trump had an affair from 2006 until 2007, a claim that Trump has denied. The ''

National Enquirer The ''National Enquirer'' is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The ''National Enquirer'' openly acknowledges that it pays Source (journalism), sources for tips (chec ...

'' paid McDougal $150,000 for her story but never published it, a practice known as catch and kill. On September 30, 2016, Cohen created Resolution Consultants LLC, a

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

shell company, to purchase the rights to McDougal's story from the ''National Enquirer'', though the rights to the story were ultimately never purchased. Cohen had been known to record conversations and phone calls with other people. According to his lawyer Lanny Davis, "Michael Cohen had the habit of using his phone to record conversations instead of taking notes." Altogether the prosecutors have been given more than one hundred audio recordings from the material seized from Cohen in the April 2018 raid; reportedly only one of them featured a substantive conversation with Trump. On July 20, 2018, it was revealed that Cohen secretly recorded a conversation between Trump and him. The discussion involved a potential hush payment to the publisher of the ''National Enquirer''. The recording had been classified as a privileged attorney–client communication by the Special Master reviewing the Cohen material, but Trump's attorneys waived that claim, meaning that prosecutors can have it and use it. The conversation in that tape occurred in September 2016, two months before the election and weeks after the ''Enquirer'' paid McDougal the $150,000. In the conversation, Trump and Cohen discuss whether to buy the rights to her story from the ''Enquirer'', and Trump appears to approve the idea. Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, initially claimed that the tape shows Trump saying "make sure it's done correctly, and make sure it's done by check". Giuliani also noted that no payment was ultimately made, and asserted that Trump's team waived privilege and allowed the recording to be revealed because it shows no violation of law. The recording appears to contradict Hope Hicks, then Trump's spokeswoman, who said when the story of the ''Enquirer'' payment came out a few days before the election that the Trump campaign had "no knowledge of any of this". On July 25, Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis released the actual recording to

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, which played it on the air on the '' Cuomo Prime Time'' program. On it, Trump can be heard concluding a telephone conversation with an unidentified person and then discussing several items of business with Cohen. Cohen mentions that he needs to "open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David", interpreted as meaning David Pecker, the head of American Media, which publishes the ''National Enquirer''. Later when they discuss financing, Trump is heard saying something about "pay with cash", to which Cohen responds "no, no, no", but the tape is unclear and it is disputed what is said next; the word "check" can be heard. A transcript provided by Trump's attorneys has Trump saying "Don't pay with cash ... check." The tape cuts off abruptly at that point. A lawyer for the Trump Organization said that any reference to "cash" would not have meant "green currency", but a one-time payment ("cash") vs. extended payments ("

financing Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm use ...

"), in either case accompanied by documents. According to Aaron Blake at ''The Washington Post'', "the tape provides the first evidence that Trump spoke with Cohen about purchasing the rights to women's stories—apparently to silence them—before the 2016 election." He also notes that Cohen speaks in "somewhat coded language", which Trump understands, suggesting that he is already familiar with the issue. Despite the taped conversation, on August 23, in a

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

interview Trump stated that he was not aware of the hush-money payments until "later on": "Later on I knew. Later on. What he did—and they weren't taken out of the campaign finance, that's the big thing." He added: "In fact, my first question when I heard about it was, did they come out of the campaign, because that could be a little dicey. And they didn't come out of the campaign and that's big. But they weren't ... that's not even a campaign violation." According to U.S. election rules, any payments intended to influence an election vote must be reported, and the payments have raised questions about campaign-finance ethics. On May 13, 2024, the jury in Trump's New York criminal trial would hear the taped conversation. On May 14, 2024, Cohen testified that McDougal's hush money was undertaken "in order to ensure that the possibility of Mr. Trump succeeding in the election — that this would not be a hindrance" and that he did not alter the recording of the conversation.

Later matters

On April 3, 2017, Cohen was appointed as one of three national deputy finance chairmen of the

(RNC), along with Elliott Broidy and Louis DeJoy. In April 2017, Cohen also formed an alliance with Squire Patton Boggs for legal and lobbying counsel on behalf of Trump. Despite serving as a consultant lawyer, Cohen later testified that Trump never made a personal lawyer to the President. In May 2018,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

falsely reported that Cohen had received a secret payment of between $400,000 and $600,000 from intermediaries for Ukrainian President

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician and Oligarchy, oligarch who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine), Minister ...

to arrange a meeting between Poroshenko and Trump, though Cohen was not registered as a

foreign agent A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign principal while located in another host country, generally outside the Diplomatic immunity, protections offered to those working in their official capacity fo ...

. Cohen and the Ukrainian president's office denied the allegations. The BBC ended up having to state the allegation was untrue, apologizing to Poroshenko, deleting the article from its website, paying legal costs, and paying damages to Poroshenko. In May 2018, Rudy Giuliani announced that Cohen was no longer Trump's lawyer. In June 2018, Cohen resigned as deputy finance chairman of the RNC. His resignation letter cited the ongoing investigations and also criticized the Trump administration's policy of separating undocumented families at the border. In July 2018, Cohen asserted that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son Donald Jr. and other Trump campaign officials with Russians who claimed to possess information damaging to the Hillary Clinton campaign, contradicting Trump's repeated insistence that he was not aware of the meeting until long after it had taken place. In his May 2024 testimony, Cohen linked not only Trump, but also Allen Weisselberg to both the

and Karen McDougal hush money payments. Cohen claimed that Weisselberg not only coordinated his reimbursement payments for his Stormy Daniels hush money payment, but also gave him the advice on how to make the McDougal payment by telling him to use creative ways which did not involve the Trump Organization. He also stated that Trump directed him to make the payment to Daniels in the wake of the ''Access Hollywood'' tape leak.

=Lawsuit against Trump and countersuit

= In March 2019, Cohen sued the Trump Organization for allegedly refusing to reimburse his legal fees regarding proceedings implicating Trump. Jury selection began on July 17, 2023, ahead of a trial which was set to start on July 24. On July 21, both parties agreed to an undisclosed settlement. In April 2023, Trump sued Cohen for $500 million, alleging breaching the trust of their

attorney–client privilege Attorney–client privilege or lawyer–client privilege is the common law doctrine of legal professional privilege in the United States. Attorney–client privilege is " client's right to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person fro ...

while making statements against Trump. Cohen sought documents from

to use in his defense. In August, Trump claimed that these documents "should be covered by a confidentiality order" and disclosing them could expose Trump "to the risk of self-incrimination" in other cases. On October 5, 2023, Trump dropped the suit after he was scheduled to give sworn testimony the following week.

Falwell scandal involvement

In 2015 president of

Liberty University Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...

Jerry Falwell Jr. reached out to Cohen and asked him for a personal favor. Falwell had told Cohen that a third party had obtained compromising nude photos of Falwell's wife Becki Falwell. Cohen met with the third party and after the meeting the person destroyed the photos. Shortly after Cohen did this favor for Falwell, Falwell endorsed Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. In August 2020, Cohen told CNN that there was no link between the favor and the endorsement saying “There is absolutely no connection between the photos and my personal request to the Falwells to assist the Trump campaign".

Payment to Shera Bechard

In an April 2018 court proceeding, Cohen said he had given legal advice to only three clients in 2017: Trump,

Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...

, and Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy. ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that Shera Bechard, a former ''Playboy'' Playmate, had an affair in 2017 with Broidy, who was married. She became pregnant by him, had an abortion, and was to be paid $1.6 million hush money. Broidy was a deputy finance chairman of the

along with Cohen and DeJoy. In late 2017, Cohen arranged the $1.6 million payment by Broidy to Bechard as part of an NDA requiring Bechard to keep silent about the matter. Cohen was Broidy's attorney and Keith M. Davidson represented Bechard. Davidson had previously been the attorney for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. The Bechard NDA used the same

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

s—David Dennison for the man and Peggy Peterson for the woman—as in the Daniels agreement. The payments were to be made in installments. On July 6, 2018, Bechard filed a lawsuit against Broidy, Davidson, and Daniels' attorney

Michael Avenatti Michael John Avenatti (born February 16, 1971) is an American former attorney currently incarcerated in federal prison for felony fraud and extortion. He is best known for his legal representation of Pornographic film actor, adult film actress S ...

, claiming the three had breached the agreement in relation to the cessation of the settlement payments.

Essential Consultants LLC

Essential Consultants LLC is a

shell company created by Cohen in October 2016 to facilitate payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels. For many months thereafter, Cohen used the LLC for an array of business activities largely unknown to the public, with at least $4.4 million moving through the LLC between Trump's election to the presidency and January 2018. In May 2018, Daniels' lawyer

posted a seven-page report to

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

detailing what he said were financial transactions involving Essential Consultants and Cohen. Avenatti did not reveal the source of his information, which was later largely confirmed by ''The New York Times'' and other publications. The data showed that hundreds of thousands of dollars were given to Cohen, via Essential Consultants, from Fortune 500 firms such as

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

and

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

, which had business before the Trump administration. It was also revealed that Essential Consultants had received at least $500,000 from a New York-based investment firm called Columbus Nova, which is linked to a Russian oligarch. The firm's largest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, a Ukrainian-born Russian oligarch. Vekselberg is a business partner of Soviet-born billionaire and major Republican Party donor, Leonard Blavatnik. A spokesperson for Columbus Nova said that the payment was a consulting fee that had nothing to do with Vekselberg. Questions were raised about many of the payments, such as four totaling $200,000 that

paid to the LLC between October 2017 and January 2018, while at the same time the proposed merger between the company and

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

was pending before the Justice Department. AT&T claimed that the money was paid to the LLC and other firms that were used to provide insights into understanding the new administration, and that the LLC did no legal or lobbying work for AT&T. On May 11, 2018, the CEO of AT&T stated that in early 2017 it was approached by Cohen to provide "his opinion on the new president and his administration". Cohen was paid $600,000 ($50,000 per month) over the year, which its CEO described as "a big mistake". Novartis was also approached by Cohen and was offered similar services. Novartis, a

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

–based pharmaceutical giant paid the LLC nearly $1.2 million in separate payments. Novartis released a statement May 9, 2018, that it hired the LLC to help the company understand the "health care policy" of the new administration, but it actually did not receive benefit for its investment. The statement continued that Novartis made a decision to not engage Essential Consultants further, but it could not terminate the contract for "cause", raising concerns on why the company did not pursue reimbursement. Korea Aerospace Industries paid $150,000, ostensibly for advice on "cost accounting standards". Franklin L. Haney agreed to pay Cohen $10 million if he successfully lobbied for the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

to finance the Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station, or a reduced fee if the funding targets were only partially met.

Investigations

As of April 2018, Cohen was under federal criminal investigation by the

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York The United States attorney for the Southern District of New York is the United States Attorney, chief federal law enforcement officer in eight contiguous New York counties: the counties (coextensive boroughs of New York City) of New York County, ...

(SDNY). On April 9, 2018, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

raided Cohen's office at the law firm of Squire Patton Boggs, as well as his home and his hotel room in the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City, pursuant to a federal

search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize Police, law enforcement officers to conduct a Search and seizure, search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to Confiscation, confiscate an ...

. The warrant was obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the SDNY, whose public corruption unit was conducting an investigation. Seeking the warrant required high-level approval from the Department of Justice. The Interim U.S. Attorney, Geoffrey Berman, was recused. Deputy Attorney General (AG)

Rod Rosenstein Rod Jay Rosenstein (; born January 13, 1965) is an American attorney who served as the 37th United States Deputy Attorney General, United States deputy attorney general from 2017 to 2019. Prior to his appointment, he served as a United States a ...

and FBI Director Christopher Wray—both of whom are Trump appointees—had supervisory roles. The FBI obtained the warrant after a referral from

's Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, although underlying reasons for the raid were not revealed. Following the raid, Squire Patton Boggs law firm ended its formal working relationship with Cohen. Agents seized emails, tax records, business records, and other matter related to several topics, including payments made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels, and records related to Trump's ''Access Hollywood'' controversy. Recordings of phone conversations Cohen made were also obtained. According to Daniels' attorney

and civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, some of the recordings may have included participants located in California, which would make the recordings illegal, as California is a "

two party consent Telephone call recording laws are legislation enacted in many jurisdictions, such as countries, states, provinces, that regulate the practice of telephone call recording. Call recording or monitoring is permitted or restricted with various levels ...

" state. Since Cohen is an attorney, the search included the seizure of materials normally protected by attorney–client privilege, which is subject to a crime-fraud exception if a crime is suspected. Some legal scholars opined that Trump's denial that he had knowledge of the Daniels payment, combined with denials by Cohen and his lawyer David Schwartz, meant both sides had effectively said that matter did not involve attorney–client communications. Cohen and his lawyers argued that all of the thousands of items seized during the FBI raid should be protected by attorney–client privilege and thus withheld from the prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood, appointed a

special master In the law of the United States, a special master is an official appointed by a judge to ensure judicial orders are followed, or in the alternative, to hear evidence on behalf of the judge and make recommendations to the judge as to the dispositi ...

, former federal judge Barbara S. Jones, to review all of the seized materials for attorney–client privilege. She found that only 14 of the 639 paper documents were privileged, and out of the 291,770 electronic files seized, only 148 files were withheld from the prosecution. The search warrant itself has been sealed, making it unavailable to the public. The FBI also sought documents pertaining to Cohen's ownership of taxi medallions. Cohen's taxi fleet is operated by Gene Freidman, who is facing legal trouble for alleged

tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...

. A few days after the raid, McClatchy reported that the Mueller investigation was in possession of evidence that Cohen traveled to

in August or September 2016. If true, the report bolsters similar claims in 3 of 17 reports from the

Steele dossier The Steele dossier, also known as the Trump–Russia dossier, is a controversial political opposition research report on the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign, 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump compiled by counterintelligen ...

. According to McClatchy's confidential sources, Cohen traveled to Prague via Germany, a passage that would not have required use of a passport due to both countries being within the

. In reaction, Cohen denied having ever been to Prague, as he had done in his January 2017 denial following the dossier's release. ''Mother Jones'' reported that Cohen had told them "I was in Prague for one afternoon 14 years ago," contradicting later statements that he had never visited. In May 2018,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

reported that Cohen's phone calls had been monitored by

pen register A pen register, or dialed number recorder (DNR), is a device that records all numbers called from a particular telephone line. The term has come to include any device or program that performs similar functions to an original pen register, includin ...

, which logs the origins and destinations of calls but not the contents. ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported on July 26, 2018, that longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury regarding the Cohen investigation.

Conviction on campaign finance, tax evasion, and other charges

In August 2018, it was reported that investigators were in the final stages of their investigation. Cohen officially surrendered to the

on August 21, 2018. That afternoon, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges: five counts of tax evasion; one count of making false statements to a financial institution; one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution in breach of the

Federal Election Campaign Act The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA, , ''et seq.'') is the primary United States federal law regulating political campaign fundraising and spending. The law originally focused on creating limits for campaign spending on communicati ...

(FECA) of 1971; and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate (Trump) for the "principal purpose of influencing heelection". After Cohen's conviction, his personal lawyer Lanny Davis stated that Cohen was ready to "tell everything about Donald Trump that he knows". Davis alluded to Cohen's knowledge that could be used against Trump, and hinted that Cohen had knowledge of whether Trump knew in advance about the computer hacking that was detrimental to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, as well as knowledge of the meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016. He later added that he believed Cohen would agree to testify before Congress, even without immunity. Responding to speculation that President Trump might issue a

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

for Cohen, lawyer Davis said on NPR, "I know that Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man that he considers to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the oval office. And ohenhas flatly authorized me to say under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump." In his interview to Sky News, Davis said the turning point for his client's attitude toward Trump was the Helsinki summit in July 2018, which caused him to doubt Trump's loyalty to the U.S. ''The New York Times'' reported on August 22, 2018, that Cohen court documents revealed that two senior Trump Organization executives were also involved in the hush money payments, and that Cohen "coordinated with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls" about the payments. By mid-October 2018, Cohen had sat for at least 50 hours of interviews with Mueller's investigators and other investigators, although he had no formal cooperation agreement with prosecutors. Cohen also cooperated in a separate investigation by New York State investigators regarding the Trump Organization and Trump Foundation. On December 12, 2018, U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III sentenced Cohen to three years in prison and a $50,000 fine, and additionally ordered Cohen to pay $1.4 million in restitution and to forfeit $500,000.Cone, Allen; Adamczyk, Ed (December 13, 2018)
Michael Cohen sentenced to 3 years in prison stemming from plea deal
,

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...

. At his sentencing hearing, Cohen stated: "I take full responsibility for each act that I pled guilty to: The personal ones to me and those involving the president of the United States of America." Cohen said Trump was "the man that caused me to choose the path of darkness" and do "dirty deeds". Before passing sentence, Judge Pauley said, "each of these crimes is a serious offense against the United States. Mr. Cohen pled guilty to a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct." In March 2019, Cohen sued the Trump Organization to cover the $1.9 million in financial penalties plus an additional $1.9 million in his unpaid defense costs. Cohen argued that the Trump Organization—which had already paid $1.7 million for his defense—had agreed to indemnify him. Subsequently, more than half of Cohen's outstanding legal bills were paid by the Trump Organization or canceled. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in November 2021, partly on the grounds that Cohen's relevant work had been done for Trump personally rather than for the Trump Organization. On May 21, 2020, Cohen was released from prison early due to concerns regarding

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, to serve the rest of his sentence under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

. On July 2, 2020, Cohen was observed dining at a Manhattan restaurant, and on July 9, 2020, was taken back into federal custody after refusing to agree to conditions of home confinement that included a prohibition on communicating with the media. Cohen filed suit complaining that his re-arrest was an attempt to prevent him from releasing a tell-all book about Trump titled '' Disloyal: A Memoir''. On July 23, a judge found in his favor and ordered that he be returned to home confinement. Cohen was released from home confinement and his sentence expired on November 22, 2021. Immediately following his release, Cohen said he would continue to "provide information testimony documents and my full cooperation on all ongoing investigations to ensure that others are held responsible for their dirty deeds and that no one is ever believed to be above the law". In 2024, Cohen asked to sue Donald Trump for his 2020 re-arrest, which Cohen claimed had been retaliatory.

Conviction for perjury in congressional testimony

On November 29, 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee and House Intelligence Committee in 2017 regarding the proposed Trump Tower Moscow deal that he spearheaded in 2015 and 2016. Cohen had told Congress that the deal ceased in January 2016 when it actually ended in June 2016, and that he had not received a response about the deal from the office of a senior Russian official when he actually had. Cohen said that he had given the false testimony in order to be consistent with Trump's "repeated disavowals of commercial and political ties between himself and Russia" and out of loyalty to Trump. Cohen received a two-month sentence, to be served concurrently with his three-year sentence for tax fraud, for the false testimony. This charge was brought directly by Robert Mueller's investigation, rather than the United States Attorney for the SDNY, who brought the previous charges against Cohen. In a sentencing memorandum filed the following day, Cohen's attorneys stated he kept Trump "apprised" of the "substantive conversation" Cohen had in January 2016 with a Russian official, and discussed with Trump traveling to Russia to advance the project during the summer of 2016. The filing also stated Cohen "remained in close and regular contact with White House-based staff and legal counsel" as he prepared to provide false testimony to Congress. According to a

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

report on January 17, 2019, Trump personally directed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project. However, a spokesman for the Special Counsel investigation later said the report was "not accurate", but did not specify "which parts of the BuzzFeed story they were calling untrue". On February 26, 2019, Cohen was officially disbarred by the

Defamation lawsuit

In 2018, Stormy Daniels sued Cohen for defamation, citing a statement he made to the media in which he said "Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage." Daniels's lawsuit alleged that Cohen's comments were meant to convey that Daniels was a liar about her relationship with Trump, and that the lie caused Trump harm. The case was dismissed in 2019.

Prison and house arrest

Cohen reported to FCI Otisville, on May 6, 2019. He was released from prison early on May 21, 2020, due to concerns regarding

, in order to serve the rest of his sentence under

. On July 2, 2020, Cohen was photographed dining at a Manhattan restaurant, which according to his lawyer Lanny Davis was not a violation of his prison furlough since he had not yet transitioned to

. A week later, he was taken back into custody after federal officials asserted he had refused to sign an agreement stipulating that he would have no engagement of any kind with the media—including publishing his "tell-all" book—for the remainder of his sentence, which encompassed the November 2020 elections. The previous week he had announced on Twitter that he anticipated releasing a book on his experiences working for Trump in late September 2020. He also tweeted on June 26 that a recent ''New York Times'' article entitled "Inside Barr's Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y." had revealed "only a part of the full story," using the hashtag #WillSpeakSoon. After being sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, he was returned to FCI Otisville and held in solitary confinement 23 hours each day, which prevented him from working on his manuscript on prison library computers. Cohen denied he refused to sign the agreement, asserting his attorney had simply asked questions about it, at which point US marshals escorted him back to prison. On July 20, 2020, Cohen filed suit against AG Bill Barr and two federal prison officials, asserting his First Amendment rights were being violated. Cohen claimed his return to prison was retaliation "because he is drafting a book manuscript that is critical of the President of the United States". Cohen requested he be immediately released to home confinement. The government denied on July 22 that Cohen had been re-imprisoned in an effort to block publication of his book. On July 23, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered Cohen be returned to home confinement because the government had retaliated against him and violated his First Amendment rights. Hellerstein said Cohen would be released to home confinement on July 24. Hellerstein remarked, "I've never seen such a clause in 21 years of being a judge and sentencing people and looking at terms of supervised release." One week later, the government informed Hellerstein it would not challenge his ruling and would remove the restrictive clause from Cohen's home-confinement agreement. Cohen was released from FCI Otisville on July 24, 2020. Days later, Cohen's attorney informed Hellerstein that Cohen hoped to accept a job offer with an unnamed

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

to consult and make media appearances on its behalf. Cohen was released from house arrest on November 22, 2021.

In New York

The

Manhattan district attorney The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County, New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws (federal la ...

(DA) and the New York AG opened investigations into Trump. The Manhattan DA's office decided in 2022 not to pursue charges, in part because the new DA,

Alvin Bragg Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr. (born October 21, 1973) is an American politician and lawyer who serves as the New York County District Attorney, covering Manhattan. In 2021, he became the first African American elected to that office. Bragg had previo ...

, worried that the case relied too much on Cohen's testimony. Investigators at the Manhattan DA's office continued to speak to Cohen, interviewing him 15 times by February 2023. These were separate from the investigation by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance which, on August 22, 2018, announced it had subpoenaed Cohen in connection with its investigation into whether the Donald J. Trump Foundation had violated New York tax laws. The department also said in October 2018 it would review allegations that Trump had evaded gift taxes in his inheritance of hundreds of millions of dollars from his father.

By U.S. Congress

On January 10, 2019, Cohen agreed to testify publicly before the

House Oversight Committee The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the main investigative United States congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one o ...

to give a "full and credible account" of his work on behalf of Trump. On January 12, Fox News contributor and legal analyst Jeanine Pirro took a 20-minute, on-air phone call from Trump in which he claimed Cohen had fabricated stories to reduce the length of his expected sentence. Trump suggested that investigations should instead focus on Cohen's father-in-law, saying "that's the one people want to look at". The father-in-law, Fima Shusterman, owned condos both at Trump Tower and in a Trump development near Miami. According to former federal investigators, Shusterman introduced Trump to Cohen.Hettena, Seth
A Brief History of Michael Cohen's Criminal Ties From the Russian mob to money launderers, Trump's personal attorney has long been a subject of interest to federal investigators
, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', April 10, 2018. Retrieved January 24, 2019. On several subsequent occasions Trump hinted publicly that Shusterman, or possibly Cohen's wife, could be tied to criminal activity. On January 20, Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani suggested on CNN that Shusterman "may have ties to something called organized crime". On January 23, Cohen announced through his attorney that he would postpone his testimony to a later date, citing "ongoing threats against his family from President Trump" and Giuliani. Some legal analysts asserted that these comments by Trump and Giuliani constituted intimidation and witness tampering. House Oversight Committee chairman

Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecess ...

and House Intelligence Committee chairman

Adam Schiff Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2024. A m ...

said that threatening a witness's family is "textbook mob tactics". After several scheduling delays, Cohen testified before three congressional committees in late February 2019. First was a February 26 closed-door hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He testified for more than seven hours. Also on February 26, Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz directly threatened Cohen via Twitter, hinting about unspecified disclosures to Cohen's wife and father-in-law. The Florida Bar Association investigated the incident, but only issued a "letter of advice". On February 27, Cohen gave 10 hours of public, televised testimony before the House Oversight Committee, during which he described Trump as a "racist," a "con man", and a "cheat", and expressed remorse and shame for the things he had done for Trump. He said the president had reimbursed him for illegal hush money payments, suggested that he should lie to Congress and the public about the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations, and filed false financial statements with banks and insurance companies. Republicans hammered on his previous false testimony, asking why he should be believed now. On February 28, Cohen testified behind closed doors to the House Intelligence Committee for more than seven hours. Cohen returned to that committee for more questioning on March 6. In April 2019, Cohen said he had found a hard drive with 14 million documents, many of which were personal, but some of which might be relevant to the charges. Cohen later said: “It took 26 people to go through my 14 million documents, literally round the clock, because the judge demanded that we have it done within 45 days."

''Disloyal: A Memoir''

Cohen's memoir on Trump, ''Disloyal: A Memoir'', was released in September 2020. In the foreword, Cohen characterizes Trump as "a cheat, a mobster, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man".

Personal life

Cohen married Ukrainian-born Laura Shusterman in 1994. They have a daughter, Samantha, and a son, Jake. Laura Shusterman's father, Fima Shusterman, left

Soviet Ukraine The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party m ...

for New York in 1975. He was the person who introduced Cohen to Trump, according to a Trump biographer. Cohen has been friends since childhood with

, a Moscow-born

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to other ...

with links to the

Russian mafia The Russian mafia ( or ), also known as Bratva ( ; ) less as Obshchak (Общак) or Brigades (Бригады) , is a collective of various organized crime related elements originating or/and operating in Russia. In December 2009, Timur ...

and a convicted felon. Both men worked together on the Trump Tower Moscow deal. Cohen served as chairman of the board of directors of Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School through late 2016. Before joining the Trump Organization, Cohen had purchased several homes in Trump's buildings. A 2017 ''New York Times'' article reported that Cohen is known for having "a penchant for luxury"; he was married at

The Pierre The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2 61st Street (Manhattan), East 61st Street, at the intersection of that street with Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City, facing Central Park. Designed by Schultze and Weaver, Schultze & Weaver, th ...

luxury hotel, drove a

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

while attending college, and once owned a

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of Luxury vehicle, luxury cars and Sport utility vehicle, SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Crickle ...

. In January 2019 documents that were released after the prosecution of former police officer Paul Dean revealed that Cohen, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and others had obtained handgun carry permits after making donations to the Police Athletic League or the New York City Police Foundation despite not having the proper credentials on file. Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis did not comment on the allegations against Cohen. In addition to his ''Mea Culpa'' podcast, in February 2023, Cohen teamed up with Ben Meiselas of the MeidasTouch team on a podcast/YouTube show called ''Political Beatdown''.

In popular culture

As the Mueller investigation concerning Trump was in the daily news headlines, it became fodder for parody on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'', with Cohen being portrayed by

Ben Stiller Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Known for his blend of slapstick humor and sharp wit, Stiller rose to fame through comedies such as ''There's Something About Mary'' (1998), ' ...

and Trump by

Alec Baldwin Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for his leading and supporting roles in a variety of genres, from comedy to drama. He has received List of awards and nominations received by A ...

References

External links

* * * *
''Mea Culpa'' podcast
*
Political Beatdown
' on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Michael Dean 1966 births 21st-century American criminals 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American memoirists American chief operating officers American Jews American lawyers American male criminals American people convicted of campaign finance violations American people convicted of making false statements American people convicted of tax crimes American prisoners and detainees American University alumni Criminals from New York City Disbarred American lawyers Disbarred New York (state) lawyers Donald Trump attorneys Lawrence Woodmere Academy alumni Living people Memoirists from New York (state) Mixed martial arts executives New York (state) Democrats New York (state) Republicans People from Lawrence, Nassau County, New York 21st-century prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government The Trump Organization employees Western Michigan University Cooley Law School alumni