Michael Dean Cohen (born August 25, 1966) is an American lawyer who works as a lawyer for US President Donald Trump. Prior to that, he was vice president of the Trump Organization and a special adviser for Trump. Cohen also previously served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and board member of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children's health agency. He joined the Trump Organization after becoming a partner at Phillips Nizer. In April 2018, he was under investigation by federal prosecutors on several issues, including bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign fund infringement, in part on payments made in the Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump scandal.
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Cohen grew up in the town of Lawrence on Long Island. His mother was a nurse, and his father, who survived the Holocaust, was a surgeon. Cohen is a Jew. He studied at Lawrence Woodmere Academy. He received his BA from American University in 1988 and his JD from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1991.
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Careers
Legal and business careers
Cohen began practicing personal injury law in New York in 1992, working for Melvyn Estrin in Manhattan. In 2003, Cohen was a lawyer in private practice and CEO of MLA Cruises, Inc., and from Atlantic Casino. In 2003, when Cohen was a candidate for the New York City Council, he gave a biography to the New York City Campaign Finance Agency for inclusion in his voter guides, listing it as one of the owners of the Financing Taxi Corp and the New York City Taxi fleet totaling more than 200. At the time that, Cohen is a business partner in the taxi business with Simon Garber.
By 2017, Cohen is expected to have at least 34 taxi medals through 17 limited liability companies (LLCs). Until April 2017, "king of the taxi" Evgeny Freidman manages the medals still held by Cohen; this arrangement ended after the City Taxi and Limousine Commission decided not to renew the Freidman license. Between April and June 2017, the New York State Department of Tax and Finance filed seven tax letters against Cohen and his wife for $ 37,434 with unpaid taxi fares due to the MTA.
In 2006, Cohen was a lawyer at the law firm Phillips Nizer LLP. He worked in the company for about a year before taking a job at The Trump Organization.
While at the company, Cohen became a close confidant of Donald Trump, maintaining an office near Trump at Trump Tower. Cohen aided Trump in his struggle with the condominium board at Trump World Tower, which caused Trump to gain control of the council.
In 2008, Cohen was named COO of MMA Promotions Affliction Entertainment.
Cohen has been involved in the real estate business in Manhattan, including buying and selling four apartment buildings between 2011 and 2014. The total purchase price of four buildings is $ 11 million and the total sales price is $ 32 million. Cohen sells four properties above the value they value, in all cash transactions, to LLC owned by persons whose identities are uncommon. After this was reported by McClatchy DC in October 2017, Cohen said that all four properties were purchased by American "real estate family New York" funds that paid cash for property to obtain deferred tax exchanges (Section 1031), but did not specifically identify buyer.
In 2015, Cohen bought an Upper East Side apartment building for $ 58 million.
Politics
Cohen volunteered for the 1988 presidential campaign Michael Dukakis, was an apprentice to Congressman Joe Moakley, and voted Barack Obama in 2008, though he later became disillusioned with Obama.
In 2003 he was unable to become a Republican member for the New York City Council of the Fourth District Council (Manhattan district). Cohen received 4,205 votes, and was defeated by Democratic candidate Eva S. Moskowitz, who received 13,745 votes. In 2010, Cohen was able to campaign to sit in the New York State Senate. He is a registered Democrat until he was officially registered as a Republic on March 9, 2017.
Relationship with Donald Trump and Trump Organization
Trump Advisor
He is one of the founders, along with Darrell C. Scott, of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. Peter J. Gleason, a lawyer who fills in to the protection of documents relating to two women on sexual harassment charges against Eric T. Schneiderman who has been discussed with Cohen, declares without offering details or corroborating evidence that Cohen told him that Trump, if selected governor of New York in 2013, will help bring accusations to the public's attention.
2011
While an executive at Trump Organization, Cohen is known as Trump's "pit bull". At the end of 2011, when Trump publicly speculated about running for Republican presidential candidate 2012, Cohen founded the website "Should Trump Ran?" to compile Trump into the race.
A video of Cohen's interview by CNN Brianna Keilar becomes viral, in which Cohen says, "Whose word?" several times in response to Keilar's assertion that Trump is behind all polls.
Cohen defends Trump on allegations of antisemitism.
In an interview with ABC News in 2011, Cohen stated, "If someone does something that Mr. Trump dislikes, I do everything I can to resolve it for the benefit of Mr. Trump.If you make a mistake, I will come to you, Hold your neck and I will not let you go until I finish. "
2013
In 2013, Cohen sends an email to the satirical news site The Onion , demands that the article The Onion be published that scoffs at Donald Trump ("When You Feel Low, Just Remember, I'm going to die in about 15 or 20 years ") is removed with an apology, claiming it is slanderous.
2015
In 2015, in response to a question by Tim Mak's reporter from The Daily Beast regarding alleged rape (later withdrawn) by Ivana Trump about her current husband Donald Trump, Cohen said, "I warn you, tread very lightly, because what I am about to do to you will be very disgusting. "
2017
The Trump-Russian document, published in January 2017, alleges that Cohen met with Russian officials in Prague, Czech Republic in 2016 with the aim of paying those who have hacked the DNC and "covered all traces of hacking operations". Cohen denies the charges against him, stating that he was in Los Angeles between August 23 and 29, and in New York for the entire month of September. According to Czech intelligence sources, there is no record of him entering Prague by plane, but the magazine's Respect and Politico showed that he could enter by car or train from neighboring countries within the Schengen Territory , for example Italy. In the latter case, Cohen's record entering the Schengen zone from a non-Schengen state must exist.
However, on April 13, 2018, the DC Bureau of McClatchy Newspapers reported that Special Advisor Robert Mueller had evidence that Cohen traveled to Prague during late summer 2016, with two sources confirming this secret journey. Evidence is said to indicate that Cohen entered the Czech Republic from (Germany), and since both countries are in the EU Schengen passport region, Cohen will not receive a passport stamp to enter Czech territory. The next day, Cohen again denied that he had "been to Prague". Cohen also said that he did not travel to the EU in August 2016.
In late January 2017, Cohen met with Ukrainian opposition politician Andrey Artemenko and Felix Sater at Loews Regency in Manhattan to discuss plans to lift sanctions against Russia. The proposed plan will require Russian troops to withdraw from the east Ukraine and Ukraine held a referendum on whether the Crimea should be "leased" to Russia for 50 or 100 years. Cohen was given a written proposal in a sealed envelope that he conveyed to National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in early February.
On April 3, 2017, Cohen was appointed Vice Chair of National Finance of the Republican National Committee. In April 2017, Cohen also formed an alliance with Squire Patton Boggs for legal counsel and lobbying on behalf of Trump.
In May 2017, amid growing questions about alleged Russian interference in US elections in 2016, two congressional panels asked Cohen to provide information about any communications he had with people connected to the Russian government. He is also the subject of Mueller's investigation in 2018.
2018
In May 2018, Rudy Giuliani announced that Cohen was no longer a Trump lawyer.
Payment to Stormy Daniels
An article in January 2018
On March 5, the Wall Street Journal quoted an anonymous source telling Cohen who said he missed two deadlines to pay Daniels because Cohen "could not reach Mr. Trump in the last days of a fierce presidential campaign" , and that after Trump's election, Cohen complained that he had not been paid back for payment. Cohen described the report as "false news".
On March 9, NBC News reported that Cohen had used Trump Organization email to negotiate with Daniels about confidentiality agreements, and that Cohen had used the same Trump Organization email to organize funds transfers that would ultimately lead to Daniels payments. In response, Cohen acknowledged that he had transferred funds from the home equity line of credit to LLC and from LLC to Daniels attorney.
In March 25, 2018, an interview with 60 Minutes , Daniels said that he and Trump had had sex, and then he was threatened in front of his baby daughter, and felt pressured to then sign an open agreement.
On March 26, David Schwarz, Cohen's lawyer, told ABC Good Morning America that Daniels lied in a 60 Minutes interview. Cohen's lawyer sent a stop-and-break letter claiming Daniels's claim to be Cohen's "libel and intentional destruction".
Cohen started a private arbitration case against Daniels in February 2018, under an October 2016 non-disclosure agreement signed by Daniels in October 2016 in exchange for $ 130,000. Cohen obtained an order from the arbitrator forbidding Daniels to publicly discuss his alleged relationship with Trump. Daniels then brought a lawsuit in federal court against Trump and Cohen, arguing that a non-disclosure agreement is legally invalid because Trump never signed it, Cohen responded by attempting to impose arbitration, which would avoid public proceedings. In April 2018, Cohen filed a statement in court saying that he would ask his Fifth Amendment not to incriminate himself in the Daniels suit.
On May 18, Cohen's attorney objected to lawyer Daniel Michael Avenatti who was allowed to represent him in a case involving Cohen, claiming that the objections were based on violations of ethical rules, and local court rules, among other issues.
Important Consultants LLC
For months, Cohen used LLC for a series of business activities, mostly unknown to the public, with at least $ 4.4 million moving through LLC between when Trump was elected President until January 2018. The transactions described in the notes, released to public institutions and news by Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti, including hundreds of thousands of dollars awarded to Cohen from two Fortune 500 companies (Novartis and AT & amp; T) to business before Trump administration, as well as other smaller costs for fees such as Mercedes- Benz or a private club. Cohen claims that the documents dissolved by Avenatti are inaccurate, when asked to respond by the media.
Many questions were asked about some payments, like the four $ 200,000 total that AT & amp; T is payable to LLC between October 2017 and January 2018, while at the same time the proposed merger between the company and Time Warner is pending before the Justice Department. AT & T claims that the money is paid to LLC and other companies used to provide insight into understanding the new administration, and that LLC does not do legal work or lobby for AT & T.
On May 11, 2018, CEO of AT & amp; T states that in early 2017 was approached by Cohen to give "his opinion about the new President and his government". Cohen was paid $ 600,000 ($ 50,000 per month) for a year, which his CEO described as a "big mistake". Novartis was also approached by Cohen and offered similar services.
Novartis, the pharmaceutical giant based in Switzerland, paid LLC nearly $ 1.2 million in separate payments. Novartis released a May 9, 2018 statement that the company hired LLC to help companies understand the "health care policy" of the new government, but actually did not receive any benefits for its investment. The statement goes on to say that Novartis made the decision not to engage the Essential Consultant further, but was unable to terminate the contract for "cause", raising fears that the company was not pursuing a replacement.
Korea Aerospace Industries paid $ 150,000, as if asking for advice on "cost accounting standards".
In 2017, LLC received $ 500,000 from Columbus Nova, a US business branch owned by Russian oligarchy, Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg is a business partner of Soviet-born billionaires and a donor of Republicans, Leonard Blavatnik.
federal investigation
In April 2018, Cohen was under federal criminal investigation by US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Possible costs reported include bank fraud, wire fraud and violations of campaign finance laws.
On April 9, 2018, the FBI raided Cohen's office at Squire Patton Boggs law firm, as well as his home and hotel room at the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City, according to a federal search warrant. The warrant was obtained by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, whose public corrupt unit is conducting an investigation. Finding a warrant requires a high level of approval from the Department of Justice. US interim attorney, Geoffrey Berman, has been exiled. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray - both appointed by Trump - have a supervisory role. The FBI obtained a warrant after the referral of Special Adviser Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian intervention in the 2016 US election, although the underlying reasons for the attack were not disclosed.
Agents confiscated emails, tax records, business records, and other matters relating to several topics, including payments made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels, and records related to the Access Hollywood Trump controversy. Cohen phone conversation recordings were also obtained. According to Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti and civil rights lawyer Lisa Bloom, some records may have included participants located in California, which would make the record illegal, as California is a "two-party agreement".
The search includes the seizure of material normally protected by the attorney-client privilege, subject to the exclusion of criminal fraud if a crime is suspected. However, some legal scholars argue that Trump's rejection that he has knowledge of Daniels' payments, combined with rejection by Cohen and his lawyer David Schwartz, means both parties have effectively said the issue does not involve client-client communication. The search warrant itself has been sealed, making it unavailable to the public. The FBI is also looking for documents relating to the possession of a taxi medal by Cohen. Cohen's taxi fleet is operated by Gene Freidman, who faces legal issues for alleged tax evasion.
A few days after the McClatchy attack reported that Mueller's investigation had evidence that Cohen traveled to Prague in August or September 2016. If true, the report supports similar claims in 3 of 17 reports from the Trump-Russian document. According to McClatchy's secret source, Cohen went to Prague via Germany, a passage that does not require passport use as both countries are within the Schengen Area. In reaction, Cohen denied ever going to Prague, as he did in January 2017's rejection after his release.
After the attack, Squire Patton Boggs terminated his official employment relationship with Cohen.
Peter J. Gleason, a lawyer who claimed to have represented two women who claimed that New York's former attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman, "sexually sacrificed them", claimed to have discussed the case with Cohen in 2013. The account was revealed in a letter which Gleason sent to Kimba M. Wood, a federal judge who oversaw the case against Cohen, demanded protection against any record Cohen might have kept about women, and potentially seized in the attack.
Media reports
On May 3, 2018, NBC erroneously reported that Michael Cohen's telephone line had been tapped for weeks before his office, home and hotel rooms were raided and that at least one call between the White House and one of the telephone lines associated with Michael Cohen was bugged. Later that day, NBC corrected the story to show that Cohen's phone calls had been monitored by a register pen, which records the origin and purpose of the call but not its contents.
On May 8, 2018, news sources reported that the shell company used to pay Stormy Daniels, has received over $ 1 million in payments from an American company linked to Russian oligarchs, with at least one $ 500,000 payment from Colombus Nova investment firm in New York, and its biggest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian-born Russian ruler. Prior to the transaction's revelation, done in part by Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti, the transaction was not reported.
On May 23, 2018, the BBC reported that Michael Cohen had received secret payments between $ 400,000 and $ 600,000 from an intermediary for Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to arrange a meeting between Poroshenko and Trump, although Cohen was not listed as a foreign agent. Cohen and the president's office of Ukraine have denied the allegations.
Personal life
Cohen married Ukrainian-born Laura Shusterman in 1994. Laura Shusterman's father, Fima Shusterman, left Ukraine for New York in 1975. He has a daughter who is currently studying at the University of Pennsylvania. His uncle, Dr. Morton W. Levine, is a family practitioner who provides medical assistance to members of the Lucchese crime family.
Prior to joining the Trump Organization, Cohen had purchased several houses in the Trump buildings. The 2017 New York Times article reports that Cohen is known to have "a tendency to fancy"; he married at The Pierre, drove a Porsche while in college, and at one point, had a Bentley.
References
External links
- Media related to Michael D. Cohen on Wikimedia Commons
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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