Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael “Mikey the C” Cohen met for 2½ hours Tuesday with Manhattan prosecutors who are reviving their investigation into hush money payouts to both adult film actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal to prevent them from going public with their claims of extramarital affairs with Donald Trump.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges that he violated campaign finance law, revealing under oath how he arranged the payments to Daniels and McDougal.
At the time, the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan decided not to prosecute Trump over the hush-money payments, but they did begin investigating the payments to see if any state laws were broken.
(Lol “if”)
That investigation was interrupted when former DA Cyrus Vance decided to shift the focus of the probe to the Trump Organization, which resulted in a recent guilty verdict and a $1.6 million fine under his successor, Alvin Bragg.
Now, Bragg — who had teased that the investigation would move into its “next chapter” after the conviction — seems to be returning to the hush money payments, which would bring closure to the Manhattan DA’s original investigation.
Cohen — who was permitted to finish his sentence at home after the COVID outbreak in the spring of 2020 — has used his post-prison time to be as cooperative as possible with the authorities while also spilling an ocean’s worth of Trump tea to the masses on his “Mea Culpa” podcast.
1 year ago and Trump still remains in legal peril!…Michael Cohen: Does Donald Trump have a ‘secret’ pardon? | 60 Minutes Au… https://t.co/2R5n6o2NNP via @YouTube
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 17, 2023
Mikey the C couldn’t give up too much information about his meeting, but told reporters he has “tremendous confidence” in the legal team that he met with, “as well as their depth and knowledge regarding this and other matters,” Cohen said.
Oh, he told them so much. SO MUCH.
Also on Wednesday, Bragg’s office sent a letter to Mark Pomerantz, the former prosecutor who once oversaw the DA’s Office’s Trump inquiries, as well as to Pomerantz’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, to raise his concerns that the book’s scheduled publication next month could “materially prejudice ongoing criminal investigations.”
Now that sounds ominous for Trump and hopeful for his detractors or anyone else who believes in the rule of law.
Just announced: Simon & Schuster “will publish PEOPLE VS. DONALD TRUMP: An Inside Account, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the attempt to prosecute former president Donald Trump, written by Mark Pomerantz, one of the lawyers who worked on the case.” Coming Feb. 7 pic.twitter.com/4ULmRU4PnX
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 11, 2023
Follow Tara Dublin on Twitter @taradublinrocks.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.
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