what you need to know about michael cohen
Everything y'all need to know about Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal chaser
Trump and Cohen go back more than than a decade.
Michael Cohen, in one case undeniably devoted to Donald Trump, is at present about to spend days on Capitol Hill testifying against him.
A Manhattan-based lawyer, Cohen began working for him well earlier the 2016 entrada and election. During the campaign, he was a prominent spokesperson, often actualization on news shows and vehemently defending then-candidate Trump.
In fact, for more than a decade, Cohen stood by Trump's side as his personal attorney, fixer and confidant, famously proclaiming that he would "accept a bullet for the president" and "never walk away."
Just over the first two years of Trump'southward administration, as investigators targeted Cohen's personal finances, he flipped on his former boss and cooperated in multiple investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.
Information technology was ultimately hush-money deals with two women who said they had affairs with Trump -- affairs the president's denied -- that brought Cohen into the spotlight.
In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison house for diverse crimes, including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress.
After Trump's election, Cohen's ascension and fall
Cohen initially came under scrutiny after acknowledging that he fabricated a $130,000 payment to adult-moving-picture show actress Stormy Daniels as she was shopping her story of an alleged matter with Trump in 2006 to major media outlets before long before the 2016 ballot, a story first reported past The Wall Street Journal at the beginning of 2018.
A few months later, in April, Cohen's abode and offices were raided by the FBI -- a turning point in his relationship with the president. A source close to Cohen said the FBI seized documents related to the Stormy Daniels matter, likewise personal, financial and banking records dating back to 2013.
Initially, Cohen said the president had no knowledge of ii payments made -- one to Karen McDougal and i to Stormy Daniels, both of whom claimed past affairs with Trump. But federal prosecutors later alleged he acted "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump. Trump has argued the payments amount to nothing more than a "simple private transaction," and practise not qualify every bit campaign finance violations.
In the midst of it all, Cohen stopped representing the president equally his personal attorney.
In August, Cohen agreed to a bargain with federal prosecutors in the Southern Commune of New York and pleaded guilty to eight counts, saying that he fabricated illegal campaign contributions "in coordination and at the management of a candidate for federal office," who was Trump.
A calendar month afterwards, news reports bankrupt that Cohen had participated in a month-long series of interviews with investigators from Mueller'southward function. In November, Cohen struck a second bargain -- this time with Mueller -- pleading guilty to lying to Congress about the Russia investigation.
When he was sentenced at the end of 2018, the gauge on the case said "Cohen plead guilty to a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct" and "lost his moral compass," adding that "every bit a lawyer, Mr. Cohen should have known better."
In improver to three years in prison, Cohen will have to pay $1.39 million in restitution, plus $500,000 in forfeiture for the fiscal and entrada finance crimes. He will face up an additional fine of $50,000 for lying to Congress.
Cohen saturday for an interview with ABC News after his sentencing.
"I knew what I was doing was incorrect," Cohen told ABC News' Principal Anchor George Stephanopoulos in December 2018. "I stood upwards before the world [Wednesday] and I accepted the responsibility for my actions."
Cohen said he was "angry at himself" for his role in the deals, but that he did it out of "blind loyalty" to Trump.
"I gave loyalty to someone who, truthfully, does not deserve loyalty," he said.
His testimony before the House Oversight Committee will be the first time he publicly pulls back the drapery on 10-plus years past Trump'southward side. He's also testifying behind airtight-doors before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Business firm Intelligence Committee.
Before the White House
Like Trump, Cohen supported Democrats in the past, including then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008.
During his 2011 interview with ABC News, when Trump was publicly speculating nigh running for president in 2012, Cohen said that he was "prepared to put the fact that I voted for Obama to the side."
Simply Cohen, reportedly referred to as "Tom" around the Trump Organisation offices in a nod to "Godfather" character Tom Hagen, who was the consigliere to Vito Corleone, was clear most his back up for the president.
"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," Cohen told ABC News in 2011.
"If yous practice something wrong, I'm going to come at yous, catch you by the cervix and I'thousand not going to let you go until I'yard finished," Cohen added.
Fast-forward to Trump'south bodily presidential bid and Cohen was an ardent supporter of his friend in the Republican primary.
It wasn't until after Trump was in role, however, that Cohen officially became a Republican. On March 9, 2017, Cohen posted a picture of himself appearing to sign the paperwork and "[make] the official motility" to joining the Republican Party.
"It took a great man (@POTUS) to get me to make the switch," he wrote.
His party switch was followed presently past an proclamation from the GOP that he was added to the Republican National Committee'due south finance leadership team every bit national deputy chairman.
This isn't the offset time that Cohen switched to the Republican Party, however, having run a failed bid as a Republican for an Upper Due east Side metropolis council seat in 2003, according to existent estate news site The Real Deal.
Well earlier that, his other before forays into professional person politics came on the Democratic side, including volunteering for Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign and working every bit a legislative intern for former Rep. Joe Moakley, D-Mass.
Personal side
While Cohen'due south public image is intrinsically intertwined with Trump, he has shared some tidbits of information about his personal life online as well.
Cohen has used his online presence to praise his "Ivy League daughter," which prompted some outcry since it was accompanied by a flick of her modeling in tights and lingerie.
And he'south defended himself against claims of being a racist by posting that he is the "son of a Holocaust survivor" along with a collage of photos of him with various African-American Trump supporters.
Only the almost constant topic of conversation on Cohen's Twitter business relationship was undeniably the Trump administration, members of the Trump family, and Trump himself.
It shows the long history between the current president and his former fixer, which dates back long before Twitter was even around but was well documented on Trump'southward preferred social media site.
In a announcement of back up for Trump's altogether in July 2017, Cohen shared a pic of them together in what looks like Trump's New York Urban center office.
"I stand with you every day every bit you work to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain for all Americans!" Cohen wrote.
ABC News'south Meghan Keneally contributed to this study.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-cohen-trumps-personal-attorney-now-testifying/story?id=61327524
0 Response to "what you need to know about michael cohen"
Enregistrer un commentaire