The former Donald Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, is a "punching bag"



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Michael Cohen's legal team publishes a secretly recorded conversation between Cohen and Donald Trump

Over the past decade, Michael Cohen has worked as Donald Trump's personal advocate and repairman. He was an eager supplicant, fulfilling the wishes of his celebrity boss and still seeking his affection attaboy. He said that he would take a ball for Trump and, even after the American president had gone for a job at the White House, Cohen always professed his eternal loyalty.

But in the world of Trump, eternity has limits. From his confidential conversation with Trump on the purchase of the rights of an extra-marital history of Playboy Cohen took a break from his long-time client. The move punctuates the constant deterioration of a relationship between Cohen and Trump, and raises concerns in the White House that the former could reverse secrets about the latter at the FBI.

In almost four months since FBI agents raided his office, and hotel room, Cohen has felt hurt and abandoned by Trump, waiting for calls or even a signal of support that does not help. Never came. Cohen was frustrated when Trump started talking about him in the past, panicked last month when he thought the US president was no longer worried about his situation, and became furious when Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani contradicted his accounts, according to his associates. 19659005] READ MORE:
* Movement against the probe boss of Russia
* CNN report against the White House reporter
* of Truth of Cohen made public
* Trump and Cohen recorded speaking results

In the most serious hour of Cohen, as an associate described it, Trump " abandoned him in the desert.

The result is an open war between lawyer and former client. According to Lanny Davis, one of Cohen's lawyers, Cohen chose to move from Trump's pugnacious defender status to that of voyeur regardless of possible political or legal ramifications for the US president

. "Davis said." He had to say that he respected the FBI, he had to tell intelligence agencies that Russia was mingling with the election, he had to describe the Trump Tower meeting as a bad judgment , the best. "I'm not going to be a punching bag anymore," what it had been when he said, "I'm going to take a ball."

  Former personal attorney of US President Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, secretly recorded their conversations. SETH WENIG / AP </span>
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Former US President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has secretly recorded their conversations.

Cohen's actions appear to be motivated more by his indignation at the American president's indifference and feelings of betrayal – associated with the personal and financial weight of the criminal case brought by federal prosecutors – which To a legal strategy to help it.

The public release of the Trump-Cohen audio Tuesday was a surprise to the Cohen case attorneys in the southern New York District, according to people close to the case. Current and former law enforcement officials have wondered why Cohen – someone considered an angler for an advocacy agreement – would choose to make public the potential evidence. Federal investigators have recently expressed interest in Cohen's interactions with Donald Trump's campaign.

As part of their investigation into the campaign financing issues involving Cohen, federal investigators have recently expressed interest. were, including his role in dealing with sexual misconduct charges of various women. They also try to discern if anyone else that Cohen had ever heard of two of these women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, before they were named in the investigations and reporting.

In their search warrant, federal investigators asked Cohen to return all communications that both men or campaign agents had on a 2005 tape that captured Trump boasting of having seized portions body of women, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

about the release of his September 2016 conversation with Cohen on financing the deal with McDougal, a former Playboy model, to sell the rights of his story of a ten-month affair with Trump at American Media Inc., the owner of the National Enquirer who never published his account.

Trump is angry that his personal attorney has recorded him without his knowledge, although he knew before this week that the A According to people who know his thinking, the udio file existed.

"What kind of lawyer would a client register?" Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning (Thursday NZT). "So sad!"

The government has seized more than 100 records that Cohen made of his conversations with people who were discussing issues that could relate to Trump and his business and with Trump himself, according to two people familiar with the recordings. Cohen seemed to make some recordings with an iPhone – without telling anyone that he was recording them.

An important part of the recordings is Cohen surreptitiously recording reporters who met or questioned Cohen about Trump during the campaign and after the Trump election, people

Trump's voice is on many of the recordings, but only in the extracts – typically when he returns a call from Cohen or asks Cohen on a voice message to remind him, people said. The only recording in which Trump and Cohen have a substantial conversation is the one Davis published on Tuesday, (NZT Wednesday) according to these people.

"Michael Cohen used to use his phone to record conversations instead of taking notes," Davis said. "He never intended to make use of the recordings and certainly did not have the intention of being misleading."

Trump's advisers privately discuss whether they should seek a court ruling overseeing these recordings on Cohen's indiscriminate release, or According to Trump, Trump asked outside advisors what were Cohen's and Cohen's commercial interests worked outside Trump Tower. The president sees Cohen as a defector who has benefited from his association with Trump, said his associates. One of them described Trump's attitude as: "Who is this guy to betray me? It would not be his relationship with me. "

Another factor that Trump worries about is the impact that the latest revelations will have on his marriage. , according to a Republican agent in frequent contact with the White House who spoke anonymously to share private details. The time of McDougal's alleged affair was shortly after Trump's marriage with his third wife, Melania, and the birth of their son, Barron, in 2006.

Stephanie Grisham, spokeswoman for the first lady , released Wednesday (NZT) saying that it was "a little silly" reporters to worry "if she heard a recording on the news", and should instead focus on others issues, such as neonatal abstinence syndrome or bullying – issues on which the first lady has emphasized

. In Trump's political orbit, uncertainty over other damaging information that Cohen may possess – and if he is considering arming them against the US president, as it seems possible if not probable – worries the allies .

"The general feeling inside and out the building is that if there was anything, it would be the guy who would know him and would abandon him now", said the close of the White House.

  US President Donald Trump hit his former lawyer and close

US President Donald Trump hit on Twitter his former personal lawyer and close confidant Michael Cohen

Trump's legal team considers inexplicable the Cohen's failure game, arguing that the release of the recording does not hurt him and questions what Cohen can try to accomplish.

Some Trump loyalists believe that Cohen betrayed the president by hiring Davis, a fiercely partisan Democrat who for decades has been a friend and advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton. (In February, Hillary Clinton attended a celebration in Georgetown celebrating Davis' book The Demolition of President 2016: How FBI Director James Comey Costed the Presidency to Hillary Clinton .)

Early Wednesday ( Thursday NZT), Trump's assistants and allies exchanged grumpy text messages about Cohen-Davis's relationship, while hosts from Fox and Friends the morning show pro-Trump on Fox News Channel, harshly criticized Cohen on their show. 19659005] "We all think that it is used by Lanny, who has a vendetta," said Trump former advisor Sam Nunberg, who has worked with Cohen for years. Referring to Roger Stone, another former Trump adviser and a self-proclaimed master of obscure political arts, Nunberg said, "I'm still a Stone-ite, and we eat Clintons for breakfast."

Giuliani, former mayor of New York who is now one of Trump's personal attorneys, has punched Cohen for, as he says in a tweet, "divulging falsely privileged and confidential information."

Davis says that Cohen feels isolated and suffers "and" sees himself as alone against the President of the United States, Rudy Giuliani and all the administration.

Cohen's quarrel with Trump could make him an unlikely hero of the resistance movement Davis remembers crossing the New York Pennsylvania Station Wednesday after his interview on ABC Good Morning America and people slapped him in the back and told him, "Please tell Michael Cohen," Thank you for telling the truth. Suddenly, millions of people have invested their hopes in Michael Cohen. "

In the search warrant that he received during FBI raids on April 9, Cohen learned that he was the subject of a federal inquiry for bank fraud and campaign financing. violations as part of its informal role in the Trump campaign. FBI agents were investigating whether Cohen had lied on bank and loan forms or had seized evidence that he had greatly inflated the value of his taxi medallions business to request additional funding. Cohen told friends early in the summer that he was expecting that he could be arrested someday.

Donald Trump's longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, appears to be on a mission to tell the truth to power

. An interest in talking directly to Trump, but the lawyers have worked repeatedly and fiercely to block such a conversation for fear that it would appear that Cohen was trying to shape his story by talking to the American president. Trump's lawyers pointed out that he would run a similar but bigger political risk of being accused of comparing notes with a witness who had potentially embarrassing information about him.

Trump called Cohen four days after the raid for a brief recording. first reported by the New York Times but the two men have not spoken since.

Cohen got what he considered a strong signal in June that Trump had turned a cold shoulder on his legal danger, according to two people familiar with his account. After the raid, the organization Trump and Cohen had agreed on an arrangement whereby Trump's business would pay some of the legal work to determine which documents seized from Cohen's home and business were protected by the attorney privilege -client and should not be shared with

But after several months, officials of the Trump Organization began complaining – and later refusing to pay – what they considered to be charges Exceptionally high legal fees from Cohen's law firm to review files. There remains a dispute between the two parties as to whether the Trump Organization has stopped the payment or just threatened to do so. Cohen complained to his friends about his legal fees and was afraid of being cut off from Trump's world.

Alan Futerfas, an attorney from the Trump organization, declined Wednesday to answer questions about Trump's payment arrangements. He had already told New York Times that any suggestion "that people stop paying, that's not true". Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the payment dispute.

Some argued that Cohen was seeking a return pledge from Trump that he would forgive him when he was facing criminal charges. But Davis said in the media that his client is not currently asking for forgiveness, and Giuliani told the Washington Post Tuesday night that discussing a pardon would be "extremely inappropriate at this point."

"I am certain that there is no discussion of forgiveness for" Cohen ", said Giuliani." All forgiveness belongs to the president. "

The Donald Trump and Michael Cohen's conversation would have been recorded before the 2016 elections.

During his ten years in the job of Trump – first as a lawyer for the Trump organization and then as his personal advocate – Cohen professed and showed his fidelity. This is partly because of the nature of his work for Trump, who was not a typical legal advisor. Cohen described his approach as that of Ray Donovan, the fictional fixator of the Showtime series of that name making the problems of Hollywood stars disappear.

But respect and allegiance were not always reciprocal, according to Tim O'Brien, "He always treated Michael as a lap dog, as someone who would perform chores for him, but not someone whom he considered to be a peer or never really treated with professional respect, "he added. O & # 39; Brien said. "You constantly have the impression that Michael is trying to please the paterfamilias, and Trump barks quick requests on what he wants to do."

Cohen's loyalty to Trump began to fray in recent months as he felt neglected by his long time.

Last week, Cohen invited Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights defender who disagreed with Trump, to meet for breakfast at the Regency Hotel, where Cohen was staying. Cohen picked a table in the middle of the See-and-Be-seen restaurant, Sharpton recalled.

"He's totally turned on him," said Sharpton. "It was clear to me in our conversation that Michael felt betrayed and he was saying," I'm going to do what's good for my country. "He clearly wanted me to know that it was no longer Team Trump "

Sharpton added," He was hurt, and the pain became bitter. "He said," Look what I'm going through. "


– The Washington Post

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