‘A cheat, liar, and racist’... Trump’s pal gets revenge
DONALD Trump’s former lawyer and fixer has claimed the US President cheated in the 2016 elections, had serial affairs and “colluded” with Russia.
Michael Cohen’s upcoming book Disloyal – written in prison – labels his former boss “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a conman”.
In the foreword for his memoir, the 53-year-old wrote: “I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them.”
He added that Trump “cheated in the election with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything – and I mean anything – to ‘win’ has always been his business model and way of life.
“When Trump wanted to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin, via a secret back channel, I was tasked with making the connection in my Keystone Kop fashion.
“Trump had colluded with the Russians, but not in the sophisticated ways imagined by his detractors
“I stiffed contractors on his behalf, ripped off his business partners, lied to his wife Melania to hide his sexual infidelities, and bullied and screamed at anyone who threatened Trump’s path to power.”
Dangerous
Of his once closeness to the former US Apprentice host, he wrote he was “Trump’s first call every morning and his last call every night. In some ways, I knew him better than even his family did because I bore witness to the real man.”
In a warning ahead of November’s US election, he added: “In these dangerous days, I see the Republican party and Trump’s followers threatening the constitution – which is in far greater peril than is commonly understood – and following one of the worst impulses of humankind – the desire for power at all costs.”
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to multiple crimes, including lying to Congress and facilitating illegal payments to silence two women – porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal – who claimed they had affairs with Mr Trump.
He was sentenced to three years in jail but was released in May over Covid-19 concerns. He was then taken back to prison for breaking his curfew but has since been freed again after a judge ruled he had been rearrested for political reasons.
An attempt to halt Cohen’s book by the US Justice Department was also dropped.
The White House responded to Cohen’s upcoming book by calling it “fan fiction”.
White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern added: “He readily admits to lying routinely but expects people to believe him now so that he can make money from book sales. It’s unfortunate that the media is exploiting this sad and desperate man to attack President Trump.”
The White House did not address specific claims made by Cohen in the book’s foreword.
Disloyal: The True Story Of The Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J Trump, is due to be released sometime next month, ahead of the presidential election.
Cohen’s book is one of several the Trump administration has tried and failed to stop, which have been written by his family and former staff.
Ex-national security adviser John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened, was published in June, while Too Much And Never Enough, by Trump’s niece Mary Trump, went on sale last month.