(1966-)

Who Is Michael Cohen?

Michael Cohen began his career as a private injury lawyer in 1992, but his business interests quickly expanded as he built a large real estate portfolio and a business that specialized in the New York City taxicab trade. In the 2000s, Cohen began working for future President Donald Trump, where he earned a reputation for loyalty and ferocity. His work on behalf of Trump during the 2016 campaign, including the payment of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels, along with his possible involvement in attempts to cover-up purported collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, landed Cohen in the crossfires of the investigation being led by special counsel Robert Mueller. In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and bank fraud, while also claiming that he made illegal campaign contributions under the direction of Trump. He began serving a three-year prison sentence in May 2019.

Early Life and Law School

Michael Dean Cohen was born on August 25, 1966, in Lawrence, New York, a Nassau County suburb of New York City. Cohen’s surgeon father Maurice escaped Nazi persecution before emigrating to the United States, and Cohen’s mother Sondra was a nurse. Cohen attended American University and received his law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, one of the lowest-ranked law schools in the nation.

Early Legal and Business Career

Cohen began his career as a personal injury lawyer in 1992, eventually opening his own practice. A self-proclaimed entrepreneur from an early age (he claimed to have run a business importing automobiles while in college), he and his family purchased dozens of then-lucrative taxicab “medallions” that allowed them to operate a fleet of taxis in both New York and Chicago.

Although Cohen would later argue that he did not handle the day-to-day management of this business, in 2017 he and his wife were sued by the NY State Department of Taxation for nearly $40,000 in back taxes. In the spring of 2018, Cohen’s purported partner in the business agreed to cooperate with prosecutors regarding his own legal troubles.

Cohen has also focused on the New York City real estate market, where he has bought and sold a number of properties. Prior to his work for Trump, Cohen also invested in a casino cruise ship business, a series of medical clinics and billing companies and also held a small stake in a family-run club in Brooklyn. The club has been accused of being a base of operation for several Russian-American gangsters, and in the 1980s, Cohen’s uncle (the primary owner) was accused of providing medical advice to members of the notorious Lucchese crime family.

Cohen briefly flirted with politics, losing a lopsided race for a New York City Council seat in 2003, and launching a short-lived campaign for the state senate in 2010.

Relationship With Trump

His association with Trump began in 2006 when Cohen (who had already purchased several apartments in Trump-owned buildings) assisted Trump in an ongoing battle with a condominium board at a Trump property near the United Nations. An impressed Trump offered Cohen a position within the Trump Organization, and he eventually rose to the role of special counsel and Executive Vice President. He also served on the board of the Eric Trump Foundation and was co-president of the company that managed Trump’s Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos.

Cohen’s work was not limited to a legal and real estate portfolio, as he also became an adviser willing to do whatever Trump required. As Cohen told ABC News in 2011, when Trump was mulling a run for president (he opted out), “If somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn’t like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump’s benefit.” He went on to describe his tactics, saying” 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.”

Cohen also earned a reputation for going after perceived media slights against Trump, threatening to sue a satirical news site in 2013 for what he called a defamatory article and in 2015 attacking a reporter investigating allegations of abuse (later retracted) by Trump’s first wife, Ivana.

Role in Trump’s Presidential Campaign and Daniels Affair

Cohen and others repeatedly urged Trump to run for election prior to 2016, and when Trump did enter the 2016 race, Cohen became a key surrogate, appearing on numerous talk shows to defend Trump. Following Trump’s election, he was named the Republican National Committee’s deputy national finance chair, responsible for much of the group’s fundraising. He also left his position at the Trump Organization but continued to serve as Trump’s personal lawyer for several months.

Steele Dossier and Wikileaks

Cohen was named in the Steele dossier, a controversial document compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, which alleges a conspiracy between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Among its claims are that Cohen traveled to Prague in the summer of 2016 to facilitate a cover-up (including cash payments) of illicit operations.

Cohen denied any involvement and stated that he did not travel to the region during the campaign. However, in April 2018, reports emerged that Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russia’s involvement, possibly had evidence placing Cohen in the Czech Republic at the time of the purported meetings. That same month, Cohen dropped a defamation lawsuit against the news site BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS, the research and intelligence company that commissioned the dossier.

Daniels Case and Essential Consultants LLC

In early 2018, it was revealed that Cohen paid Stephanie Clifford, also known by her adult film name Stormy Daniels, $130,000 in the fall of 2016. The payment was made with regards to Daniels’ claim of a 2006 affair with Trump. Cohen initially claimed to have made the payment out of his own funds, and that Trump was not involved in the matter. It later emerged that Trump had directly reimbursed Cohen, and President Trump admitted that Cohen had represented him in the matter (although he continued to deny any affair).

Cohen sued Daniels for breaking the terms of a non-disclosure agreement related to the payment, and Daniels countersued, alleging the NDA was invalid because it had never been signed by Trump.

In May 2018, reports emerged regarding Essential Consultants LLC, the limited liability company Cohen set up to facilitate the Daniels payment. Records show that Cohen and Essential Consulting received more than $4.4 million in funds from a variety of foreign and domestic businesses, including AT&T, Swiss healthcare giant Novartis, Korean Aerospace Industries and Columbus Nova, an American-run investment firm with ties to a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government. Each of the firms stated that they hired Cohen following President Trump’s election to provide consulting and adviser services.

FBI Raid and Criminal Investigation

On April 9, 2018, Cohen’s office, home and hotel room were raided by the FBI, as part of an investigation being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The case was referred to the U.S. Attorney by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, and investigators seized emails, phone records, tax and bank statements and other materials relating to both Cohen’s work on behalf of Trump and other clients.

In June, it was announced that Cohen was parting ways with the legal team that had advised him up to that point in the criminal investigation. It was later revealed that he had hired Guy Petrillo, a former chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, as well as Lanny Davis, a longtime associate of Bill Clinton’s.

Turning on Trump

In July, Cohen sat down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos for his first in-depth interview since the FBI seized his files in April. While declining to discuss specific issues related to the investigation, Cohen said he believed that Mueller would find no evidence of improper dealings with Russian agents on his part. He also delivered some eye-opening comments about his former boss, including criticism of Trump’s demonization of the FBI and willingness to accept Vladimir Putin’s denials of tampering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Cohen emphasized that “My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will,” adding fuel to the rumor that he would offer up knowledge damaging to the president to secure a better deal from prosecutors. As for how he would respond if Trump attempted to discredit him, he insisted he would stand up for himself. “I will not be a punching bag as part of anyone’s defense strategy,” he said. “I am not a villain of this story, and I will not allow others to try to depict me that way.”

A few weeks later, Cohen released a two-year-old secret recording of a conversation with Trump about plans to buy the story rights of another woman, Playboy model Karen McDougal, who went on record around the same time as Stormy Daniels about an alleged affair with the president. Amid the occasionally muffled audio, Cohen is heard discussing the need to set up a company to arrange the payment, though it is unclear what directions followed.

The president subsequently lashed out at Cohen on Twitter, saying it was “so sad” that a lawyer would tape his client, while new Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani insisted that the recording provided no evidence of wrongdoing on his client’s part.

Continuing down that path, Cohen reportedly leaked word that he was prepared to share with Mueller his account of how the then-presidential candidate gave the go-ahead for the July 2016 Trump Tower meeting between key campaign members, including Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Russian agents who promised damaging information on opponent Hillary Clinton. Later, Cohen’s lawyer, Davis, copped to being the one who had informed the media about Trump’s supposed knowledge of the meeting, though he admitted that “the only person who could confirm that information is my client.”

Plea Deal and Sentencing

After accepting a deal with prosecutors, Cohen appeared in a Manhattan federal court on August 21, 2018, to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and illegal campaign contributions. He told the judge that the illegal contributions—payments to Clifford and McDougal to keep quiet about their alleged affairs with Trump—were “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,” implicating the president in a federal crime.

Cohen, who faced up to 65 years in prison for the charges, was expected to receive a sentence ranging from 46 to 63 months. The agreement also left open the possibility that he could cooperate with Mueller’s investigation into Russian election tampering and receive a recommendation for an even lighter sentence.

On December 12, 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $1.39 million in restitution, $500,000 in forfeiture and $100,000 in fines.

The troubled lawyer returned to the news in January 2019, when BuzzFeed reported that President Trump had directed Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to law enforcement officials involved. Cohen had previously claimed that such negotiations were over by the beginning of 2016, before admitting that they continued well into the year.

Cohen was scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee shortly after that, but he postponed his appearance over what he described as ongoing threats against his family. In February, it was announced that the New York state Supreme Court had disbarred Cohen due to his federal conviction for making false statements to Congress.

House Testimony

In late February 2019, Cohen appeared before Congress for three days of testimony. With two days of questioning held behind closed doors, the must-see event was the televised hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on February 27.

Saying he was “here to tell the truth about Mr. Trump,” Cohen testified that Trump was aware in advance of both the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians to get information on Hillary Clinton and the WikiLeaks dump of DNC emails around that time; that the candidate was continuing to pursue a deal on the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow well into the 2016 campaign; and that the president had orchestrated the plan to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels, offering copies of checks as evidence.

Cohen also described how Trump often understated his net worth for tax purposes and instructed him to threaten someone to prevent the release of potentially damaging information.

His statements were met with significant pushback from the president’s supporters, who sought to discredit him as a liar and convicted felon. During one contentious back-and-forth with Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, who accused Cohen of denying the federal charges against him, Cohen replied, “Shame on you, Mr. Jordan. That’s not what I said. Shame on you.”

Prison

On May 6, 2019, Cohen reported to the Federal Correctional Institute outside Otisville, New York, to begin serving his sentence.

In April 2020, Cohen’s attorney told the media that his client would be released from prison due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. Shortly afterward, it was reported that Cohen’s early release had been rescinded.

Cohen was released from prison in May 2020 due to coronavirus fears, but on July 9, 2020, he was taken into custody for violating the terms of his early release. On July 23, 2020, a judge ordered Cohen’s release to home confinement.

Wife and Family

In 1994 Cohen married Laura Shusterman, a native of Ukraine, and the couple have two children.

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QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1966
• Birth date: August 25, 1966
• Birth State: New York
• Birth City: Lawrence
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Michael Cohen is a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump. The revelation that Cohen engineered a financial payout to Stephanie Clifford, an adult film star who alleged she had an affair with Trump, led to a federal investigation and Cohen’s plea deal on charges of tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions.
• Astrological Sign: Virgo
• Schools
• American University
• Nacionalities
• American

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Michael Cohen Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/legal-figures/michael-cohen
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: July 23, 2020
• Original Published Date: May 31, 2018