Cohen hints at possible cooperation with federal investigators
When Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal fixer, sat down with “Good Morning America” for his first interview since federal agents raided his office in April, he said it was a step toward reaching his ultimate goal of “resolution.”
But as revealing as it was, the interview that aired Monday morning seemed to raise more questions than it answered. Chief among them: How, exactly, does Cohen want to resolve his case? And in what way could his highly public appearance on TV help him achieve his objectives?
At first blush, Cohen seemed to be suggesting in his interview with George Stephanopoulos that he was inclined to strike a deal with the New York prosecutors who have been investigating him for months. When Stephanopoulos asked him what he would do if the prosecutors offered him leniency in exchange for incriminating information about Trump, Cohen flatly said, “I put family and country first.”
In an article accompanying the interview, Stephanopoulos suggested that Cohen, who once claimed that he would “take a bullet” for Trump, had “strongly signaled his willingness” to work with federal prosecutors — even if it put the president in jeopardy. Echoing that sentiment, some legal experts said that Cohen’s assertions were the clearest sign yet that he had changed course and could be on the verge of cooperating with the government.
“I viewed his statements as saying, ‘I’m going to cooperate if I can get a good deal,’ ” said John Martin, a New York lawyer who has worked as both a federal judge and a federal prosecutor. “When he talked about loyalty to his family, what he seemed to be saying was he wants to limit his exposure and potential jail time. That’s cooperation.”
Matthew Miller, who served as director of public affairs for the Justice Department under President Barack Obama, offered a different theory on Twitter on Monday: Cohen’s interview was likely directed at the president as a “not-so subtle request for a pardon.”
Observers of the case have long considered the Cohen investigation as a bigger threat to the president than even Mueller’s inquiry, given that Cohen worked for Trump for years at the Trump Organization and helped him navigate some of the most difficult episodes in his career.
Cohen is under investigation for his various business dealings, which include hush-money payments to women who have said they had affairs with Trump. One of them was Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film star better known as Stormy Daniels, who received a $130,000 payment from Cohen in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.