Michael Cohen, President Trump’s ex-lawyer and former fixer, was described as the “fall guy” for the president in a new article published days before he begins his three-year prison sentence.
“You are going to find me guilty of campaign finance, with McDougal or Stormy, and give me three years — really? And how come I’m the only one? I didn’t work for the campaign. I worked for him. And how come I’m the one that’s going to prison? I’m not the one that slept with the porn star,” Cohen said in an interview with The New Yorker.
Cohen was referring to his guilty plea for breaking campaign finance laws for hush-money payments that he says were given to porn star Stormy Daniels, a claim that Mr. Trump has denied.
In addition to campaign finance violations, the former lawyer also pleaded guilty to tax evasion, “understating his debt and equity,” and lying to Congress.
Cohen claimed Mr. Trump had “a hundred different ideas” to pay off Ms. Daniels, adding Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was involved in the hush-money payments.
“He was involved right from the very beginning,” Cohen said. “I wanted Allen to pay the money — I didn’t want to take it from my account. He wanted me to find somebody who wanted to become a member of a golf club or was going to have a party at one of the functions and they could take the hundred and thirty off of the bill that way and then they could pay me — I mean, he came up with a hundred different ideas.”
In a 36-minute conversation recorded by comedian Tom Arnold and published in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, Cohen claimed many of the charges he pleaded guilty to in August were “a lie.”
“There is no tax evasion. And the HELOC? I have an 18% loan-to-value on my home. How could there be a HELOC issue? How? Right? It’s a lie,” he said in the March 25th call, referring to the Home Equity Line of Credit.
Cohen goes to prison on May 6.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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