Michael Cohen's lawyers speak out after long MAGA campaign to drag him through the mud
Former President Donald Trump's estranged ex-attorney and fixer Michael Cohen was a key witness at his criminal trial for felony falsification of business records — and Trump's main strategy to try to fight the charges was to paint Cohen as a pathological liar who arranged all the payments on his own and for his own personal gain, bringing up his admission of lying to Congress and the fact that he went to prison over his own role in the same hush payment scheme.
Now that Trump has been convicted, his attorneys Danya Perry and Joshua Kolb are speaking out in a piece for MSNBC, about their client as they know him.
"Cohen’s history with Trump was extensively documented throughout the trial," they wrote. "Many have tried to psychoanalyze or second-guess Cohen and his motives. But that second-guessing frequently has overlooked the powerful incentives for Cohen, like many others, to stay silent about Trump. Indeed, Cohen already faced consequences for exercising his First Amendment rights. In 2020, when the Bureau of Prisons learned that Cohen was writing a book about his experiences with Trump, the government unconstitutionally remanded him into solitary confinement until we intervened with a petition to free him. A federal judge sharply rebuked the U.S. government and ordered his release."
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Cohen has leveraged his experiences to make money, they acknowledged — but it's because that was his only option. And it wasn't an easy path, as the more he spoke out against Trump, the more his own life and the life of his family was endangered, culminating in addresses and phone numbers for his wife and kids being leaked online this week.
"The attacks have been led, of course, by Trump himself, who possesses as large a megaphone as anyone in the country," Perry and Kolb wrote — and these attacks on Cohen by Trump supporters echo the anger Trump drove that led to the January 6 attack on the Capitol three years ago. "Trump understands the impact of his words. It is quite clear he hopes to stir hostile and at times violent reactions among his most ardent supporters, directing his millions of followers against anyone who happens to earn his ire." And Judge Juan Merchan understood this when he imposed a gag order and found Trump in contempt for violating it.
"There can be no respite in vigilance," they concluded. "Cohen, Stormy Daniels, the other witnesses and the state of New York have provided a stalwart model of perseverance. Whatever tumult ensues, the forces of democracy will need to exhibit the same fearlessness that public servants and private citizens displayed in New York over the past two months. Thankfully, they can do so fortified by the knowledge that no one, not even the most powerful among us, is above the law."