Tag: Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen pleads guilty

The following article was posted on the Axios.com website August 21, 2018:

Credit: Timothy A. Clar, AFP via Getty Images

President Trump’s former longtime attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts related to tax fraud, making false statements to a financial institution, excessive campaign contributions, and unlawful corporate contributions in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

During his guilty plea, Cohen said he was directed to violate campaign law at the direction of an unnamed candidate. He added that the same candidate directed him to pay $130,000 in hush money, which the candidate later reimbursed. Cohen told the court that he knew what he was doing was illegal.

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‘There’s a Lot More to Come’: Michael Cohen Ally Reportedly Says He Has a ‘Treasure Trove’ of Dirt on the President

The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet website July 27, 2018:

The president’s former lawyer is reportedly furious about the latest leak about his knowledge.

Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was furious when reports broke Thursday night that he is willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump knew about a secret meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to a new report from Vanity Fair.

Reporter Emily Jane Fox says that contrary to some speculation, sources close to Cohen say that his team did not leak the story. Cohen has been hoping to use that information as a part of a deal from federal prosecutors who are investigating him. No charges have yet been brought against Cohen.

Fox reports that the claim about the meeting was one of the “most valuable potential pieces of information” Cohen possessed.

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Trump accuses Michael Cohen of lying about Trump Tower meeting

The following article was posted on the Axios.com website July 27, 2018:

Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty Images

President Trump unleashed a series of tweets Friday morning, accusing his former lawyer Michael Cohen of lying “in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam” and denying that he had any knowledge of Don Jr’s 2016 meetingwith a Russian lawyer.

“I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary’s lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!”
— One of President Trump’s morning tweets

Trump also slammed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “Witch Hunt” in response to a New York Times report that Mueller wants to question the Trump about his tweets as part of his ongoing investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of Justice.

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Michael Cohen claims Trump knew about 2016 Trump Tower meeting ahead of time

The following article was posted on the Axios website July 26, 2018:

Michael Cohen walking down Park Avenue. Credit: Timothy A. Clary, AFP via Getty Images

Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for President Trump, claims Trump approved “going ahead with” the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials met with Russians to offer the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, reports CNN.

Why it matters: Cohen’s claim contradicts denials by Trump, Trump Jr., their lawyers and administration officials who say then-candidate Trump was unaware of the meeting until he was approached about it by the New York Times in July 2017. Cohen said he is willing to testify in the Mueller investigation, but does not have any corroborating evidence other than his claim.

The details: Cohen claims that he, along with several others, was present when Trump was informed of the offer from the Russians and then-candidate Trump approved going ahead with it.

Trup claims “positive things” he said were edited out of Cohen tape

The following article by Eric Lutz was posted on the Mic.com website July 25, 2018:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning went into defense mode, bashing his former lawyer Michael Cohen for recording what appears to be him discussing hush money payments to a Playboy model, and implying that “positive things” he said were edited out of the tape released by CNN the night before.

“What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?” Trump tweeted. “So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped — can this be so?”

“Too bad!” the president added.

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Four important points that arise from the Trump-Cohen recording

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website July 24, 2018:

CNN aired audio from 2016 of Trump and Cohen discussing paying for a story about an alleged affair, after months of Trump and his advisers claiming ignorance. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)

The now-famous conversation between President Trump and his then-attorney Michael Cohen which Cohen surreptitiously recorded seems to have taken place in the first week of September 2016 at Trump Tower. The audio, obtained by CNN, includes two bits of information that help us place it: A reference to a good CNN poll, like the one that came out on Sept. 6 of that year showing Trump up 2 points, and a reference to the campaign’s no longer being able to use Pastor Mark Burns as a surrogate. A few days prior, he’d been caught falsifying details of his biography.

That means that the conversation took place about a month after American Media Inc., the publishers of the National Enquirer, bought the exclusive rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story about an affair with a married man. That man, she alleged earlier this year, was Trump and, in the recorded conversation with Cohen, the rights to her story appear to be the primary subject of conversation.

We know that because CNN got a copy of the tape from Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis.

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Michael Cohen’s lawyer releases audio recording of secret Trump tape

The following article was posted on the Axios website July 24, 2018:

Michael Cohen, longtime personal lawyer and confidante for President Trump. Credit:: Don Emmert, AFP/Getty Images

CNN on Tuesday obtained the audio recording of a conversation Michael Cohen had secretly with his longtime client Donald Trump, in which the two could be heard discussing making a payment to a Playboy model who allegedly had an extramarital affair with Trump about a decade ago.

The conversation: Trump could be heard asking Cohen, “What financing?,” CNN reports.

  • Cohen: “We’ll have to pay.”
  • Trump: “Pay with cash.” The audio is muddled and it’s unclear whether he suggested his attorney should pay with cash or not pay, CNN notes.
  • Cohen: “No, no.” It’s unclear what was said next.

Why it matters: The September 2016 recording, which Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis gave to CNN, confirms that President Trump had some knowledge of a proposal to buy the rights to the story of Karen McDougal, the Playboy model.

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‘The Heart of the Mueller Probe’: Michael Cohen Reportedly Wants to Get the Truth Out About the ‘Core’ of the Trump-Russia Story

The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet.org website July 23, 2018:

A new Vanity Fair article reports on sources close to the president’s lawyer who say Cohen has information about the Trump Tower meeting.

Michael Cohen arrives with his lawyers at the United States District Court Southern District of New York. Credit: Spencer Platt, Getty Images

FBI investigators have obtained 12 recordings from President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen as a part of the investigation that led to raids on several of Cohen’s properties, according to multiple reports Monday.

But Emily Jane Fox of Vanity Fair reported Monday evening that, at least according to one of his friends, Cohen believes his own testimony is much more valuable than the recordings themselves.

“It’s not the recording that is valuable,” one person told her. “It’s the backstory.”

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Michael Cohen privately questions Trump’s fitness to be president

The following article by Jonathan Swan was posted on the Axios.com website July 21, 2018:

Michael Cohen arrives with his lawyers at the United States District Court Southern District of New York. Credit: Spencer Platt, Getty Images

Friends of Michael Cohen have noticed that since Trump’s Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin he’s been more openly questioning Trump’s fitness to be president. “It’s one thing for him [Cohen] to be concerned about his suitability to be president,” a knowledgeable source told me. “It’s quite another thing to be concerned about his [Trump’s] loyalty to his country.”

The source added that Cohen was sending a public signal to this effect when he tweeted, on Monday after Trump’s Helsinki press conference: “As I said to @ABC @GStephanopoulos, “I respect our nation’s intelligence agencies who determined that Russia, had in fact, interfered or meddled in our democratic process. I repudiate Russia’s effort…and call on all Americans to do the same.”

Why this matters: The Trump-Cohen relationship broke down a while ago, but now the investigation of Cohen is heating up — with the NYT revealing that Cohen secretly taped Trump — the two have dispensed with the public pretense of loyalty.

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2 troubling questions for Trump in light of the new Michael Cohen tape revelation

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website July 20, 2018:

Here’s a breakdown of the people that President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen has dealt with and the investigations he’s entangled in. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

We’ve known for a while Michael Cohen taped some of his conversations and investigators had those tapes. What we did not know was whether a tape of President Trump was included or whether the two discussed legally problematic things.

We now know the answers to those questions: Trump was, and they did.

The Washington Post has confirmed that potential turning point of a story. Investigators have a tape of Cohen and Trump discussing purchasing the rights to Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story of an alleged affair with Trump from the National Enquirer’s parent company, about two months before the 2016 election. The New York Times first reported the story. Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani confirmed the tape exists but said it is actually “exculpatory,” because Trump suggests the payment should be documented, and the payment was not actually made.

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