Trump’s loyal ‘fixer’ under feds’ scrutiny

WASHINGTON — Michael Cohen sums up his extraordinary closeness with President Donald Trump in one word: “Loyalty.”

After setting up a committee in 2011 designed to boost the possibility of a Trump presidential bid, he described his role as “fixer” in this way: “It means that if somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn’t like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump’s benefit. If you do something wrong, I’m going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished.”

Loyalty, he has said, spurred him to regularly threaten lawsuits against those he perceived as threats to Trump. Loyalty, he said, prompted him to use a home equity line of credit to finance a payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels for her silence.

Now, in the wake of Monday’s raid by federal agents on his law office, a looming question is whether Cohen went too far in seeking to solve Trump’s problems. The raid was aimed at seizing documents related to the Daniels payment. It was based on a referral to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to meddle in the 2016 election.

“This is a very, very unique relationship, one that was remarkable,” said Michael Caputo, a former Trump political adviser. “I’ve never seen someone so loyal to their boss. Cohen, 51, grew up on Long Island, became a lawyer, served as an intern to a Democratic congressman and went into the New York City taxi business. He simultaneously ran a law office, which defended his taxi interests. His business thrived, but subsequent efforts to enter politics failed with unsuccessful bids for New York City Council and state senate. Some of his business ventures floundered, including a casino boat based in Florida. His wife, Laura, is a native of Ukraine, and Cohen has said he speaks rudimentary Russian.

By 2001, Cohen, who said he had admired Trump for years, bought his first property in a Trump building and encouraged family members to do the same. Around 2006, after Trump got to know Cohen through his condo purchases — as well as an introduction from Donald Trump Jr. — Cohen became executive vice president and special counsel of The Trump Organization.

Cohen was an early supporter of Trump’s presidential ambitions, creating the 2011 committee called “Should Trump Run?” and flying to the first-caucus state of Iowa to explore the possibility.

After Trump did not run in 2012, Cohen talked with Trump about running in 2016 and became one of his most public defenders.

It was mostly left to others to defend Trump in court. Cohen’s job was to reprise the role once played by one of the most important men in Trump’s life: lawyer Roy Cohn, the pugnacious attorney who taught Trump that the best way to survive was to counterpunch 100 times harder.

Cohen’s finances are not public, and it is not known how much he was paid by Trump. Cohen has handed a number of potential threats to Trump.

Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate who said she had an affair with Trump in 2006, said she sold her story to the National Enquirer, which did not publish it. McDougal said in a lawsuit that the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media “worked secretly with Mr. Trump’s personal ‘fixer,’ — Cohen — to suppress her story.

However, the payment to Stormy Daniels thrust Cohen into the full glare of scrutiny.