MICHAEL COHEN
FORMER COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT (TURNED STATES EVIDENCE)
WELCOME TO THE CLUB FED
Michael Dean Cohen is an American former attorney who was a lawyer for Donald Trump from 2006 until May 2018. Cohen was a vice-president of The Trump Organization, and the personal counsel to Trump, and was often described by media as Trump's "fixer".
Born: August 25, 1966 (age 52 years), Lawrence, NY
Spouse: Laura Shusterman (m. 1995)
Children: Samantha Blake Cohen, Jake Ross Cohen
Education: Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School, American University, Lawrence Woodmere Academy
Parents: Maurice Cohen, Sondra Cohen
Siblings: Bryan Cohen
NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen took a last swipe at President Donald Trump while reporting to federal prison Monday to start a three-year sentence for crimes including tax evasion and campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments made to protect his former boss.
Cohen, who turned on Trump last summer after a decade as his personal lawyer, fixer and “take a bullet” loyalist, didn’t mention the president by name, but he left little doubt about whom he blamed for his incarceration.
“I hope that when I rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in a place without xenophobia, injustice and lies at the helm of our country,” Cohen told reporters outside his Manhattan apartment. “There still remains much to be told, and I look forward to the day where I can share the truth.”
Cohen, 52, then stumbled through a crush of media, ignoring shouted questions, and got into a waiting Cadillac Escalade, which drove him to jail 70 miles (115 kilometers) northwest of New York City.
He got a slight jump on his prison sentence, arriving at the Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville, at around 11:45 a.m., more than two hours before a court-imposed deadline.
The prison has a minimum-security camp that’s become known for the white collar criminals it houses and the amenities — including tennis courts, bocce ball and rugelach in the commissary — that it affords them.
TERMS OF CONVICTION(S) FOR FRAUD; PERJURY
- 5 counts of tax evasion
- 1 count of making false statements to a financial institution
- 1 count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution
- 1 count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign
- 1 count of making false statements to a congressional committee
PENALTY: 3 years in prison. FINES - ASSET FORFEITURE - DISBARMENT
PANDORAS BOX - HE DID OPEN THE DOOR 
Michael Dean Cohen (born August 25, 1966) is an American attorney who works as a lawyer and spokesperson for US President Donald Trump. Prior to this appointment, he was Executive Vice-President of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Trump.
Cohen also previously served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and a member of the board of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children’s health charity. He joined the Trump Organization after having been a partner at Phillips Nizer.
April 2018, he is under investigation by federal prosecutors into multiple matters, including bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations, relating in part to payments made to Stormy Daniels.
He truly meets the Scumbag image and fits well into the T-RUMP circle. He has answers and knows what went on, it’s a question of does he fall on a sword provided by Donald or does he fall on his own and work with the investigators to save his own body from being impaled.
Actually it’s not a circle, it’s an oval. And there are plenty of seats. And the social director seems to be VLAD the impaler.
GREAT FRIEND OF THE PRESIDENT
WHO JUST MIGHT HELP BRING HIM DOWN IN THE STATE and DISTRICT COURTS
Excerpts: Federal investigators raided the offices of Michael Cohen, the man who has been closer than anybody to Trump’s most problematic business and personal relationships. This week, we learned that Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months—his e-mails have been read, presumably his phones have been tapped, and his meetings have been monitored. ( Big Brother at work hunting Big Crooks)
Trump has long declared a red line: Robert Mueller must not investigate his businesses, and must only look at any possible collusion with Russia. That red line is now crossed and, for Trump, in the most troubling of ways. Even if he were to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and then have Mueller and his investigation put on ice, and even if—as is disturbingly possible—Congress did nothing, the Cohen prosecution would continue.
Even if Trump pardons Cohen, the information the Feds have on him can become the basis for charges against others in the Trump Organization. This is the week we know, with increasing certainty, that we are entering the last phase of the Trump Presidency. This doesn’t feel like a prophecy; it feels like a simple statement of the apparent truth. I know dozens of reporters and other investigators who have studied Donald Trump and his business and political ties.
Some have been skeptical of the idea that President Trump himself knowingly colluded with Russian officials. It seems not at all Trumpian to participate in a complex plan with a long-term, uncertain payoff. Collusion is an imprecise word, but it does seem close to certain that his son Donald, Jr., and several people who worked for him colluded with people close to the Kremlin; it is up to prosecutors and then the courts to figure out if this was illegal or merely deceitful. We may have a hard time finding out what President Trump himself knew and approved.
IT’S REALLY A BIG CLUB WITH
FEW MEMBERS AND LOTS OF MONEY
Cohen, Donald, Jr., and Ivanka monetized their willingness to sign contracts with people rejected by all sensible partners. Even in this, the Trump Organization left money on the table, taking a million dollars here, five million there, even though the service they provided—giving branding legitimacy to blatantly sketchy projects—was worth far more. It was not a company that built value over decades, accumulating assets and leveraging wealth. It burned through whatever good will and brand value it established as quickly as possible, then moved on to the next scheme.
There are important legal questions that remain. How much did Donald Trump and his children know about the criminality of their partners? How explicit were they in agreeing to put a shiny gold brand on top of corrupt deals? The answers to these questions will play a role in determining whether they go to jail and, if so, for how long.
There is no longer one major investigation into Donald Trump, focussed solely on collusion with Russia. There are now at least two, including a thorough review of Cohen’s correspondence. The information in his office and hotel room will likely make clear precisely how much the Trump family knew. What we already know is disturbing, and it is hard to imagine that the information prosecutors will soon learn will do anything but worsen the picture.
TRUMPS FAT ASS FEELING THE HEAT
Of course Trump is raging and furious and terrified. Prosecutors are now looking at his core. Cohen was the key intermediary between the Trump family and its partners around the world; he was chief consigliere and dealmaker throughout its period of expansion into global partnerships with sketchy oligarchs. He wasn’t a slick politico who showed up for a few months. He knows everything, he recorded much of it, and now prosecutors will know it, too. It seems inevitable that much will be made public. We don’t know when. We don’t know the precise path the next few months will take. There will be resistance and denial and counterattacks. But it seems likely that, when we look back on this week, we will see it as a turning point.
However, I am unaware of anybody who has taken a serious look at Trump’s business who doesn’t believe that there is a high likelihood of rampant criminality. CNN - Michael D. Cohen’s office, hotel where he was staying, and home were raided by the FBI after prosecutors received a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller.
The longtime personal lawyer of President Donald Trump has been in and out of the spotlight ever since Trump became President. The raid was in connection to several topics, including information related to Stormy Daniels. Cohen turned over thousands of documents, but his lawyer Stephen Ryan called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary,” Fox host Sean Hannity just helped the government's case against President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, tremendously.
Courtroom drama peaked Monday at a hearing in lower Manhattan when Michael Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, reluctantly revealed to Judge Kimba Wood -- a judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York -- that Cohen's mystery third client was Hannity, the bombastic, unconditional champion of citizen-turned-candidate-turned-President, Donald Trump. AKA Hannity = CODE NAME “SCUMBAG ONE" But the shock of that third-client revelation paled in comparison to Hannity’s
In fact, while responding on his radio show to news that he had been identified as one of Cohen's three clients, Hannity explicitly stated that he was never represented by nor had he ever retained Cohen.
He bent over backwards to deny the relationship, claiming nothing more than a few harmless chit-chats over real estate. In an effort to distinguish his interactions with Cohen from those of Trump and Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy (the other two clients), Hannity implied that his own exchanges with Cohen did not entail the silencing of any alleged sexual partner, as these exchanges did not involve any third party.
Said Hannity, on his radio show Monday: "Not one of any issue I ever dealt with Michael Cohen on ever -- ever -- involved a matter between me and any third party."
Although he later clarified his comments to suggest that he expected that some of his conversations with Cohen would be confidential, his earlier denial that a relationship ever existed renders that expectation unpersuasive. It is gratuitous doublespeak.
Interestingly enough, this is precisely what the government argued in favor of the disclosure of Cohen's communications with other purported clients. To get the search warrant in the first place, the government had to have convinced the court that Cohen and his so-called clients were not actually in an attorney-client relationship, and therefore their conversations were not privileged.
Hannity just confirmed that to be true, at least with respect to himself. That certainly undermined the credibility of Cohen and perhaps explains why Cohen wanted to keep their relationship confidential.
But even if an attorney-client relationship between Cohen and Hannity did actually exist, it is the client, not the attorney, who controls the disclosure of communication. Even if Cohen wanted to disclose the discussions, he would only be allowed to do so if Hannity agreed to it.
But in this case, Hannity isn't asserting the privilege, so Cohen lacks any basis not to disclose the information or to prevent the government from looking at any communications between himself and Hannity.
The accidental client is a legal possibility. It is an attorney's responsibility to confirm the existence of an attorney-client relationship or clarify someone's confusion as to whether one exists. But the notion of an accidental attorney is a legal absurdity. And yet, that is the very absurdity on which Cohen rests his claim.
In a political world of legal semantics and lawyerly answers that hedge more than they clarify, some things are unmistakably clear: if a client doesn't think you are his attorney, you're not.
COHEN HAS A FAMILY LIFE
SOME VESTED IN TRUMPISM
The New York Times reported. During this intense investigation,
his wife Laura Cohen has mostly stayed out of the spotlight.
Laura Cohen is from Ukraine, Newsweek reported. In a statement to the Senate in
2017, Michael Cohen said that he and Laura had been married for 23 years and
were enjoying watching their children become adults themselves.
Michael’s younger brother, Bryan, also married to a Ukrainian. In the past, Michael Cohen came under scrutiny for a failed attempt to negotiate peace between Russia and the Ukraine, The New York Times reported.
Michael and Laura Cohen made significant money from New York City taxicab medallions, Newsweek reported. But now they owe $37,434 in unpaid taxes to the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority), related to that business, New York Daily News reported.
Medallions allow taxi drivers to legally pick up passengers who are flagging on the streets of New York City and they are limited in number, so people used to consider them a good investment. But ride-sharing companies decreased their value.
LAURA COHEN’S PARENTS
ANIA AND FIMA SHUSTERMAN
Had participated in some of the tax businesses with Michael and Laura, according to Talking Points Memo. They also co-own property with the Cohens in Trump Tower in New York on United Nations Plaza. Back in 2013, Fima Shusterman had to take Jocelyn Wildenstein to court in order to get $73,500 in back rent from a home Jocelyn was renting from Fima in Trump Tower.
Michael and Laura Cohen have two children, daughter Samantha and son Jake. According to Jake Ross’ Instagram, he will be graduating from the University of Miami in 2022. Samantha is attending the University of Pennsylvania.
In January 2017, Michael visited the University of Southern California with his son to meet the university’s baseball coach. This trip was at the same time that an uncorroborated report had claimed that Michael Cohen had been in Prague to meet with Russian officials.
Cohen said this was a false report. In a statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017, he wrote: “I was in Los Angeles with my son who dreams of playing division 1 baseball next year at a prestigious university like USC. We were visiting the campus, meeting with various coaches, and discussing his future. Media sources have been able to confirm these facts and I can provide you with proof.” He tweeted this photo during that same time:
In a statement to the Senate in 2017, Michael said that Laura and his daughter had both been subjected to horrific sexual harassment. He said: “My daughter, who is at an Ivy League school, and my wife, who is of Ukrainian descent, have especially been subjected to harassment, insults and threats … some so severe I cannot share them in mixed company.”
At least some of this harassment happened in May 2017, when he tweeted a photo of Samantha from a modeling photoshoot. Hundreds of people told him on Twitter that it was creepy to share a sexy photo of his daughter. He responded: “Beauty and brains you a-hole! It’s a modeling shot remake from an old Edie Sedgwick photo.”
THE TAPES ARE OUT
COHEN and TRUMP
CNN) Michael Avenatti was right: The “Trump-tapes” do exist. Michael Cohen, the man who once said he'd be willing to take a bullet for Donald Trump, has now provided perhaps the strongest evidence against him.
As first reported by New York Times, the FBI is now in possession of at least one recorded conversation between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump regarding payment to Karen McDougal, 1998 Playmate of the Year, and now the second-most-famous-alleged-Trump-mistress.
You may remember McDougal from her tearful and heartfelt interview with CNN in which she detailed the months long love affair she said she had with Trump in 2006. She was allegedly paid $150,000 by American Media, Inc. ("AMI") -- publisher of the tabloid magazine, The National Enquirer -- for the rights to her story, which was never published, a practice known as "catch and kill" in the media industry.
There's nothing criminal about the practice of catch and kill. But if it turns out that there were multiple payments to women for the purpose of aiding the Trump presidential campaign, which was formally launched on June 16, 2015, and those payments were not disclosed as campaign contributions, both the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice could potentially pursue claims against Trump and Cohen.
The parallels between this case and 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards' payments to videographer Rielle Hunter, with whom he had a child, are hard to miss. The Edwards case fizzled, in part because prosecutors couldn't prove the requisite intent on the part of Edwards to secure a conviction. But this case may be different.
This recent bombshell is even more relevant when combined with what we already know about the hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels, which involved the now-infamously-bungled nondisclosure agreement between Daniels and Essential Consultants LLC, the Delaware limited liability company Cohen created which was used in both the $130,000 payment to Daniels and also implicated in the $1.6 million payment offer to a former Playboy model who allegedly had an affair with top Republican National Committee official Elliott Broidy (he has since resigned).
How many more women are involved in what now seems to be a coordinated pattern and practice on the part of Cohen and Trump to silence women for Trump's political gain?
Cohen, Donald Trump's longtime attorney and "fixer," secretly recorded a conversation he had with then-candidate Trump about the potential of an additional payment to McDougal, approximately two months prior to the election.
We’ve known for a while that Cohen had a propensity to tape his
conversations. 
But we didn't know he had recorded his conversations specifically with Trump.
This begs the question: If Cohen recorded this conversation, what else was swept up in that now infamous raid by the FBI of his home, office and hotel room on April 9, 2018? CNN reported Friday that the FBI also seized tapes of Cohen speaking with other "powerful" individuals.
This, of course, is all playing out against the backdrop of the looming possibility of a criminal indictment against Cohen by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. It happened and he got three years.
Cohen's recent off-camera interview with George Stephanopoulos is the strongest indication I've seen thus far in Cohen's ongoing legal saga that he will likely cooperate with federal prosecutors.
He decided to "flip" on the President, the mere fact that he recorded conversations with his former boss may be both men's undoing, especially in the event a criminal case is brought. For any prosecutor, a key element of a criminal case is showing that someone violated the law and violated it knowingly. For the purposes of proving the latter, a tape-recorded conversation about a payment before it happens is some of the most damning information a prosecutor can wield.
We of course do not know what is on this tape or the others in possession of the FBI. But we know the FBI has them, and that should make Mr. Cohen and his former client very uneasy, and the promise of a long stay in the Federal Prison in Upstate New York in the beautiful Catskill Mountains. Bocci Ball, horseshoes, good food, nice accommodations