Decryption | Michael Cohen: a “gangster” at the helm

(New York) On a hot day in the summer of 2012, Donald Trump eyed a tennis player who had just left one of the courts at his private estate in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“Look at this little ass,” he says to Michael Cohen, who is standing next to him, not far from the estate’s swimming pool. “I would love to bang him. »

The personal lawyer, or more precisely the “fixer” of Donald Trump, freezes upon hearing his boss’s words, while the player, dressed in a short skirt and a tank top, walks towards him.

“She’s my daughter,” Cohen whispers in Trump’s ear, speaking of the 15-year-old girl.

” It’s your daughter ? When did she become so hot? », replies the billionaire, who shortly afterwards asks Samantha Cohen for a kiss like the one she leaves on her father’s cheek.

“Since when did you have such a beautiful figure?” You have really grown up, he will tell her. You better watch out, because in a few years, I’m going to date one of your friends. »

Michael Cohen recounts the anecdote in Disloyal, his memoir written during his time in prison. He recalls that his daughter was not only disgusted by Donald Trump’s comments on her physique, but also by the condescending treatment that the latter reserved for her as an employee.

“She wanted me to stop working for Trump,” he wrote.

His wife Laura was of the same opinion. But Michael Cohen continued to work for the former president.

Trump’s “charm”

Disloyal is an essential book to understand the twisted relationship between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen, who will reconnect this Monday in a New York courtroom during an extraordinary confrontation.

On the stand, Cohen will begin testimony that will be decisive in the outcome of what could be Donald Trump’s only criminal trial before the 2024 presidential election. Judging from his memoir, jurors will find him either fascinating, either disgusting, or both at the same time.

His first face-to-face meeting with the businessman dates back to 2006. At the age of 39, Michael Cohen was already a multimillionaire. He owes his fortune not so much to his practice of personal injury law as to his investments in the tough New York taxi industry. He also owns several apartments in buildings named after Trump, one of which is in the Trump World Tower (TWT), where the board of directors is at war with Donald Trump.

Told by his son Donald Jr. of real estate developer and reality show star Michael Cohen’s reputation as a pitbull lawyer The Apprentice invites him to his office in Trump Tower and asks him to resolve his problem with the TWT board of directors.

Cohen is already a huge fan of the best-selling author The Art of the Deal, which he read twice rather than once. He accomplished his first mission brilliantly. Then another, where Trump asks him to orchestrate the extrajudicial liquidation of a loss-making company that is damaging his image. “Be tough. And I mean very harsh,” he tells Michael Cohen, who will not care about the lives upended or destroyed by his illegal action.

“Within a few months, I began to fall under the spell of Donald Trump,” the lawyer writes. “The question was no longer what I would do for Trump, but what I would not do. And the short answer was that I would do and say just about anything. »

“Like a mafia boss”

The author of Disloyal compares the influence that Donald Trump had over him to that which the latter exercises today over his supporters. A hold which, however, was not only that of a guru over the members of his sect.

That means defrauding contractors on behalf of Donald Trump, ripping off his business partners, lying to his wife Melania to hide his sexual infidelities, and intimidating or berating anyone who stood in his way to power.

And that obviously includes paying Stormy Daniels $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about the sexual relationship she claims to have had with Donald Trump. The latter is today accused of having falsified commercial documents to camouflage the reimbursement of this sum of money to his former “fixer”.

There seems to be no doubt that the documents have been falsified. But did Donald Trump approve it? Michael Cohen is perhaps the only witness capable of providing an answer capable of convincing the 12 jurors of this fact beyond a reasonable doubt.

An inveterate liar

However, it is not necessary to read Disloyal to know that he is not an ideal witness. Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in connection with the Russia investigation, tax fraud, and violating campaign finance rules (in connection with payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal).

Cohen will defend himself by saying that some of his crimes were committed to protect the man he calls the “Boss” in his memoirs. But defense lawyers will have no shortage of material to portray him as an inveterate liar who is seeking revenge for not having inherited a position in the Trump administration.

They could also use Disloyal to portray him as a gangster. In his memoir, Michael Cohen remembers working the summer when he was 15 at his uncle’s Brooklyn club, El Caribe, which was frequented by members of the Lucchese mafia clan. He then thought he was a young Henry Hill, a real character played by the late Ray Liotta in the film Goodfellas.

In his memoirs, he also names among his youthful role models a sulphurous lawyer, Roy Cohn, and two members of the Jewish mafia, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel.

“I would practice law,” I decided as a young man, “but I would practice it like a gangster,” he wrote.

How can jurors trust such a man?

On the stand, Michael Cohen will perhaps provide the same answer he serves to readers of Disloyal : “Any person in law enforcement will tell you that only gangsters can reveal the secrets of organized crime. If you want to know how the mafia really works, you have to talk to the bad guys. I was one of Trump’s bad guys. In his world, I was a 100% man of honor. »