Michael Cohen to meet NY investigators for 15th time in ongoing Trump probe
Michael Cohen, former President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, arrives at Federal Court in New York.
Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s long-time personal attorney, said he will meet with the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Wednesday as investigators appear to be nearing a decision on whether to seek charges against Trump.
Cohen said on his podcast “Political Beatdown” that the meeting with District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) office will mark Cohen’s 15th appearance during several investigations.
“It’s now the 15th time that I’m heading in to discuss this and other several matters with the DA’s team tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to it, to be very honest with you,” Cohen said.
A spokeswoman for Bragg declined to comment.
Cohen’s announcement came hours after an ex-senior prosecutor in the case, Mark Pomerantz, published a book criticizing Bragg for not pursuing charges last year and suggesting he would need to rekindle a relationship with Cohen for him to cooperate again.
“I do believe that Alvin Bragg is serious,” Cohen said on the podcast. “I believe that whatever occurred in the past is the past, and I think he legitimately believes that there is a case to be made against Donald Trump.”
Pomerantz and another top prosecutor, Carey Dunne, resigned about a year ago as the investigation appeared to stall after focusing on whether Trump’s businesses manipulated property values for tax and loan benefits.
Last month, The New York Times broke that Bragg impaneled a new grand jury as prosecutors returned to an October 2016 hush payment made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged an affair with Trump.
Trump denies the affair, and he has condemned the investigation as a witch hunt and accused prosecutors of committing misconduct.
Cohen could be a key witness. He claims he made the payment at Trump’s direction, and the former president later reimbursed Cohen under the guise of it being a legal retainer fee despite it allegedly being a strategy to avoid embarrassment just prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Legal experts say such a scheme could lead Bragg to seek charges of falsifying business records against the former president.
But only one version of the charge is a felony, and securing that conviction would require prosecutors to connect any falsified records to another crime.
Cohen pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations after making the payment, but Pomerantz expressed uncertainty that a federal charge would suffice to reach the felony.
“What we’re going to see is a really qualified team of prosecutors going through all of the documents,” Cohen said on his podcast. “Not just the old documents that were left over from the Pomerantz and Carey Dunne days, but I believe that there’s new information that they’ve been able to acquire.”