Who is Michael Cohen?
Michael Cohen was born on August 25, 1966, in Lawrence, New York. He is an attorney from the United States and served as a personal attorney to Donald Trump. The attorney, once considered a loyal confidant and “fixer” for Trump, has now become one of the most vocal critics of the former president. His transformation from being a trusted lawyer for Trump into a cooperating witness against him represents a rather complicated story full of courtroom dramas, personal revelations, and backroom politicking.
Early life and career
He was born to a Jewish family whose father was a Holocaust survivor and surgeon, while his mother was a nurse. He attended American University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1988, later studying at Thomas M. Cooley Law School for his Juris Doctor in 1991. Before dipping his hands into real estate and the New York City taxi industry, Cohen had been a personal injury lawyer, but therein lay his gold mine.
Everything in Cohen’s life and career changed forever in 2006 when he started working for Donald Trump. A lawyer by training, Cohen rapidly assumed the role of key player for Trump in his business dealings, demonstrating the level of bare-knuckle fighting and utter loyalty to the man. Cohen was deeply ensconced in Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, often being in charge of sensitive items that called for discretion.
Legal troubles and guilty plea
That loyalty would eventually turn into the sword of Damocles that hung over Cohen’s head. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to a raft of charges that included violations of campaign finance laws, tax evasion, and bank fraud. The most serious were the campaign finance violations-the result of payments Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep silent about their purported extramarital relationships with Trump. He made the payments, he testified in court, at the direction of Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 election.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison in December 2018 and was disbarred shortly thereafter. His guilty pleas implicated himself but also raised serious questions about Trump’s conduct during the campaign-a moment of great significance in the continuing investigations into Trump business practices and political activities.
Transformation and break with Trump
Cohen had just come out of jail in 2021 a changed man. He began publicly breaking with Trump, calling him a “con man” and a “cheat” in congressional testimony last February. As Cohen testified before Congress, he blistered Trump, detailing involvement in the hush-money scheme. “I have done bad things, but I am not a bad man,” he said. “I have fixed things, but I am no longer your ‘fixer,’ Mr. Trump.”
He has since emerged as one of the sharpest critics of Trump and uses his experience to provide political commentary through various media channels, including his podcast, Mea Culpa, and news programs. He leveraged this platform as a force for accountability and reform, adopting a whistleblowing persona against the administration he once served.
Current status and ongoing legal battles
Cohen, by 2024, remained at the epicenter of the criminal vortex swirling around Trump. Cohen is supposed to testify in the remaining cases about alleged financial misdeeds of Trump, including that very hush-money payment. There was a thing or two that could be said against Cohen’s credibility. The Trump defense team did its best to undermine his testimony by underlining Cohen’s criminal record and his past loyalty to Trump.
Of late, Cohen has also been suing the Trump Organization over issues including a suit for unpaid legal fees. These battles mirror Cohen’s fractured relationship with Trump, working its way from one of loyalty to one of open animosity.
