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While President Donald Trump absorbed the news that Michael Cohen, his former personal and famous "fixer" attorney, had issued a secret recording of the two, he was doing what he usually did in such situations: and squeaked loudly. Two sources who spoke to Trump about Cohen this week said the president was furious – screaming "swearing", by a confidant – after CNN revealed that Cohen had secretly recorded at least one of their conversations. On Tuesday, the cable network released audio, provided by Cohen's attorney, Trump and his former repairman discussing the purchase of Playmate's history rights Karen McDougal [[] Playboy alleging that she had an affair with Trump.
American Media Inc. (AMI), the parent company of National Enquirer holds the rights to the story. And David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally, led AMI. But, according to a source familiar with the Trump-Cohen conversation, Pecker had told Trump that he was considering leaving AMI, raising fears at Trumpland that a new company chief might decide to publish the story of McDougal. Such and such fears have prompted Trump and Cohen to look into buying the rights to the story themselves, according to the source. In the end, Pecker stayed at AMI and Trump chose not to buy the rights of the story.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's attorney, told The Daily Beast that he had "no knowledge" of the discussion between Trump and Pecker. A spokesman for the AMI did not respond to a request for comment on the case
After the announcement of the call, the president informed his loved ones that he felt betrayed by Cohen. He was particularly furious at being illegally registered and that audio had found his way, from all places, CNN, a frequent target of Trump tweets. Trump also expressed his frustration that there are apparently other bands out there, and that he does not know exactly what could be on them, or when they will fall in the press.
On Thursday night, this next shoe dropped, only it was not in the form of an audio recording. CNN (again) reported that Cohen was willing to attest that Trump had lied when he claimed that he had no prior knowledge of the infamous campaign meeting that his eldest son helped organize with the Russians at Trump Tower.
Giuliani denied the last allegation to CNN and called Cohen a chronic liar. But the episode is likely to anger the president, who has been stewing on the Cohen affair for days.
In his two most recent tweets about his former lawyer, Trump refused to write "Michael" or "Cohen" as he did in other tweets about him this year. The slight is not by chance, according to several people who have known Trump for years. The president, they say, will often stop using people's names if he is convinced that they are defectors, or if he suddenly finds some "losers" that are not important enough. do not deserve attention.
"They died one on the other [now]," said another source close to the president who also knows Cohen.
The Trump allies are already playing, in the words of an outside advisor to the president, "Burying" Cohen.
An ally of Cohen swept away imminent attacks, calling Giuliani and his associates "the gang that can not shoot right."
Reached for comment, Cohen referred The Daily Beast to his lawyer Lanny Davis. Davis said that Cohen is not concerned about the upcoming attacks of the president's allies and substitutes. "When you have the truth on your side, you are afraid of nothing," he said. " they have afraid of?"
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You are subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Drap. "When Michael Cohen came to see me, I spent two weeks asking him what he had done in the past for Mr. Trump and what he wanted to do in the future ", Continued Davis. "I decided to represent him after hearing the answers to these two questions and listened and watched what he was willing to say on television to George Stephanopoulos. I made my decision. "He pressed the reset button, he made a turn – to be alone, telling the truth."
Several of Cohen's associates told the Daily Beast that Cohen – who for years has publicly been himself as the ultimate Loyalist Trump – has chosen to publicize elements of his relationship with Trump once he realized that his loyalty would not be reciprocated .
Many were surprised that it took him so long to realize it. The President passed Cohen for a plum-Cohen administration concert had told friends that he was waiting to be exploited as White House Chief of Staff – and displayed a bad habit Cohen's appearance as a nuisance among peers
The relationship between Trump and Cohen over the years tells that during the 2016 presidential race, Cohen often wandered to rooms at Trump Tower where the GOP's favorite and his advisers senior officials had meetings on political strategy and other issues related to the campaign. Cohen, according to these sources, would try to intervene, only for Trump to tell him to leave and say that they would talk later. "Get out, Michael," Trump ordered for a moment of particular annoyance.
Through all this, Cohen remained a convinced ally of Trump. But in the months following the arrival of the authorities in his office, he began to feel abandoned by the president. The feeling that he could be left as a possible slugger eventually convinced him to go on the attack.
Cohen told associates that he believes that there is no feedback on his latest moves, and that he expects to have finished with the president for the rest of his life.
"He … made peace with the loss of his friend," said a friend of Cohen's.
This was a staggering turnaround for someone who had said as recently as April that he "would rather be jumping from a building rather than lighting Donald Trump." At the time, a senior White House official joked, "What is the height of the building?" – Reflecting a widespread perception of Cohen as a supplicant whose utility was not so obvious. Now, the words often used to describe Trump's former attorney are "sneaky," "weak," and "traitor," with Trump's allies saying that it will not be difficult to portray Cohen as a hypocrite. , an opportunist or a criminal
. ] Cohen certainly gave fodder to his enemies. During the election of Trump, he tried to make a financial assassination through a secret effort of "lobbying the shadows". When this effort exploded dramatically with the publication of private client lists, Cohen found himself even more in trouble with federal investigators. These customers could now find themselves in even more embarrassing headlines.
"We do not have to speculate too hard to think that some of Michael Cohen's other clients are going to be very, very angry when they find out that they may be on tape," he said. a source familiar with its antecedents.
But everyone in Trump 's orbit thinks it' sa good idea to go to war. Jack Kingston (R-GA), a former Trump substitute and friend of Cohen, told The Daily Beast that he felt "sorry" for Trump's old hand. m [White House chief of staff John] Kelly, I would say to the President: "Do not talk to Michael Cohen anymore, it's not in your interest," added Kingston. "But I would ask someone else to talk to Michael Cohen … so that it does not feel like being hurt and that the member was sawn. "
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