A newly-released recording reveals what it's like to be on the receiving end of a threat from Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer.
"You're talking about Donald Trump, you're talking about the front-runner for the GOP, presidential candidate, as well as private individual, who never raped anybody and of course understand that by the very definition you can't rape your spouse," Cohen can be heard telling Tim Mak, then a reporter for The Daily Beast, in newly released recording from 2015. In a story published by NPR, Mak included clips of Cohen's threats after Mak asked the campaign about a past claim by Trump's ex-wife Ivana Trump that he had raped her.
"Mark my words for it, I will make sure that you and I meet one day over in the courthouse and I will take you for every penny you still don't have, and I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know. Do not even think about going where I know you're planning on going. And that's my warning for the day," Cohen told Mak in the recording.
Since Cohen's office was raided by the FBI in April, there has been increasing speculation about the role he would play in the larger saga of Trump's presidential scandals. Having worked with Trump for over a decade, Cohen developed a reputation as a "pit bull" of a lawyer who was fiercely loyal and would do anything to advance the interest of his high-profile client. As a result, Cohen became one of the ultimate insiders within Trump's inner circle, raising questions about not only what he knew regarding potentially illegal activities, but whether he would ever flip on his former boss.
"In my experience, first of all, people who say they're not going to flip at this stage of the game, it's too early to tell," former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" last month. "They change their mind quite often, and I'm talking about people who have every incentive not to cooperate — like organized crime members, members of violent gangs — so when the pull is very strong, as it must be here for Michael Cohen and must be a very pull strong pull to Donald Trump they still cooperate quite often."
She later added, "The second thing that's important to know is that if he does cooperate, I think he's going to be a very valuable cooperator because people who are — those are the people you do need to cooperate are the people on the inside."
This current version of Cohen — the one who legal experts believe could play a crucial rule in taking down a president — is far removed from the one who threatened to ruin a journalist's career almost three years ago.
"So I'm warning you, tread very f***ing lightly because what I'm going to do to you is going to be f***ing disgusting," Cohen told Mak. "Do you understand me? Don't think you can hide behind your pen because it's not going to happen. I'm more than happy to discuss it with your attorney and with your legal counsel because motherf***** you're going to need it."
Cohen even referenced a previously threatened lawsuit, this one against Univision for dropping Trump's Miss USA pageant due to disparaging comments he had made about Mexican immigrants.
"I think you should go ahead and write the story that you plan on writing; I think you should do it because I think you're an idiot, all right, and I think your paper is a joke. And it's going to be my absolute pleasure to serve you with a $500 million lawsuit like ... I did to Univision," Cohen told Mak.
As Mak wrote for NPR, Cohen's threats against him did ultimately have consequences, albeit not the ones that the lawyer had likely intended.
Cohen never filed a lawsuit against me or The Daily Beast. But after The Daily Beast published the story, Cohen's remarks caused internal tension among Trump's team.
"You know after he did that interview with you ... Corey Lewandowski and Hope Hicks were pushing for Michael to be fired and Trump was seriously considering it," [former Trump adviser Sam] Nunberg said.
Cohen later apologized publicly for his remarks about spousal rape.
Once Trump was elected, Cohen found himself on the outside looking in, despite years of service.
"Nobody was screwed over more by Donald than Michael Cohen," Nunberg said. "Michael has been extremely loyal to Donald, was there from the very beginning. And Donald treated him like garbage."
Earlier this month, a piece in The New York Times elaborated on the murky nature of Cohen's professional life, and particularly the kind of tough guy work that he did on Trump's behalf.
But the president has long entrusted Mr. Cohen to represent him in matters both public and deeply private: real estate negotiations from Fresno, Calif., to the Republic of Georgia, and the hush-money payment to an adult-film actress who said she had had an affair with the future president. Or, as Mr. Trump put it, “this crazy Stormy Daniels deal.”
The $130,000 payment to the actress is in a way emblematic of Mr. Cohen’s many business dealings. Its provenance is murky, obfuscated by a private agreement, pseudonyms and evolving explanations. President Trump said this past week that he had paid Mr. Cohen a retainer that was used to reimburse the $130,000, directly contradicting his earlier statements that he knew of no payment to Ms. Daniels.
Within the Trump Organization, it was Mr. Cohen’s job to deal with Mr. Trump’s thorniest problems. But now, whatever problems investigators find in Mr. Cohen’s own array of businesses could double back on Mr. Trump.
It remains to be seen just how much of Cohen's past work fixing Trump's mistakes will, in the end, wind up looking a major mistake on Trump's part in its own right.
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