Strange bedfellows: Cohen, Daniels share Trump experiences

NEW YORK — When he was Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen was hellbent on silencing Stormy Daniels, even arranging a hush-money payment to the porn actress that landed him in federal prison.

Now, as one of many of the former president’s insiders-turned-critics, Cohen is broadcasting Daniels’ story — including intimate new details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Seeking to bury the hatchet, Cohen interviews Daniels in the latest episode of his podcast, “Mea Culpa,” in which the two commiserate over life-altering experiences with Trump and his recent departure from office.

“My battle is just now starting,” Daniels tells Cohen in their first-ever conversation, referring to litigation she said had been in a holding pattern before Trump left office. “People are really upset, and they’re just going to get more (angry) at me.”

Cohen, in keeping with the title of his program, apologizes for “the needless pain” he put Daniels through when he arranged a $130,000 payment during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep her quiet about an alleged dalliance with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump has denied the affair.

“Both of our stories will be forever linked with Donald Trump, but also with one another,” Cohen tells her. “Thanks for giving me a second chance.”

Federal prosecutors charged Cohen with skirting campaign contribution rules by arranging the hush-money payment to Daniels and a similar payment to Playboy model Karen Mcdougal. He pleaded guilty to those counts — as well as lying to Congress and tax evasion — and was sentenced to three years in federal prison.

Cohen has been producing his podcast from his Manhattan apartment, where he is serving the remainder of his sentence after he was released for a second time in July as part of an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19 in federal prisons.

Cohen and Daniels are united not only in infamy but deep regret over Trump.

“I got to go places I would never get to go,” she tells Cohen. “But overall, if I could just wave a magic wand and make everything go back to the way it was before, I would absolutely do that.”