Trump, former fixer Michael Cohen have warm interview
President Trump had a warm public reunion Thursday with Michael Cohen, his former fixer turned foe whose court testimony contributed to Trump’s 2024 conviction in the hush-money trial.
Cohen, who is seeking a pardon, interviewed Trump on his New York radio program, calling him “boss” and giving a six-minute monologue about friendship and forgiveness.
In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and served more than a year for a $130,000 hush payment and other crimes, including cheating on his personal taxes and lying under oath to Congress.
Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal the payment, partly based on Cohen’s testimony. Trump has denied the encounter with Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, and is appealing the ruling.
Trump was represented at trial by Todd Blanche, now the U.S. attorney general, who called Cohen the “GLOAT,” meaning the “greatest liar of all time.”
After Trump won reelection later in 2024, a federal appeals court ordered the Manhattan judge in the hush-money case to more closely review how the Supreme Court’s July 2024 ruling granting Trump broad immunity from prosecution affected the New York case.
“How do two men who spent years in an all-out public war hurling verbal and legal missiles across a massive canyon ever come back to the same room?” Cohen said. “We forgave.”
Trump, seeking political allies ahead of the November midterm elections, then greeted his former fixer of 15 years: “Hello Michael. How are you, Michael?”
“I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” Trump said, speaking to Cohen from the White House.
Cohen aired excerpts from a prerecorded interview focused on Trump’s favorite themes, including his campaign against immigrants and disdain for unfavorable polls.
