LISTEN: How Michael Cohen Protects Trump By Making Legal Threats
Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen is facing legal peril, including an FBI raid of his home and office — and involvement in a civil lawsuit with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
But in the past, it was Cohen who sought to put legal pressure on others to solve problems for his boss.
For the first time, audio recordings of Cohen's legal threats, from a 2015 Daily Beast interview, are being published.
Conversation between Michael Cohen and NPR's Tim Mak, reporting for the Daily Beast in 2015
And as part of reporting on Cohen's history of legal threats, so is a previously little-noticed claim regarding Daniels.
In October 2016, weeks before Election Day, Cohen arranged for Daniels to sign a nondisclosure agreement. The deal was that in exchange for $130,000, she wouldn't talk about the allegation that she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.
The president denies this allegation. But Trump has admitted there was a nondisclosure agreement to buy Daniels' silence.
Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, now tells NPR that she was coerced into signing the agreement.
"In October of 2016, Michael Cohen made threats against my client Stormy Daniels, as it related to pressuring her to enter into the NDA and accept the $130,000 payment," Avenatti told NPR, but he offered no additional details when pressed.
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It has a little player built into the page so be patient, it will load and the interview starts. It goes about 7 mins.
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/31/615843930/listen-how-michael-cohen-protects-trump-by-making-legal-threats
Sounds like a real gem of a threat making guy. Enjoy prison Cohen.
