Michael Cohen Says Legal Woes Are Ruining His Family’s Life
Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, walks to the Loews Regency hotel on Park Avenue on April 13, 2018 in New York City — after lunch at Barneys cafe Freds. Image by Getty Images
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, is struggling to go about his life as usual in the month since a dozen federal agents raided his home, office, and hotel room, Vanity Fair reported.
Cohen, who is under investigation over his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump, is reportedly most distraught over the impact on his family.
“I live for my wife and my kids,” Cohen told friends, according to Vanity Fair. “I’d die for my wife and my kids. And this is all ruining their lives.”
An NBC News report on Thursday inaccurately claiming that the government had wiretapped Cohen’s phone — which the network corrected later that day — was particularly difficult on his children.
While Cohen once said he would take a bullet for the president, the sudden spotlight has taken a toll on him as well. Cohen told friends that he and his wife have lost a collective 20 pounds since the raids.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s new lawyer, told ABC News on Sunday that he expects Cohen to cooperate with authorities, though he does not think they will find what they are looking for because, as he said it, Cohen does not have “any incriminating evidence.” He also said that a pardon “obviously is not on the table,” though he added “that’s not a decision to be made now; there’s no reason to pardon anybody now.”
“None of this is normal, but he’s trying to keep it as normal as he can,” a friend of Cohen’s told Vanity Fair.
Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
