Michael Cohen has added a big name to his legal defense team: former Clinton White House special counsel Lanny Davis.
Davis announced Thursday that he was moved to join the case by a recent ABC News interview in which Cohen pledged his loyalty to his family and country over President Trump.
“Like most of America, I have been following the matter regarding Michael Cohen with great interest,” Davis said in a statement. “As an attorney, I have talked to Michael many times in the last two weeks. Then I read his words published on July 2, and I recognized his sincerity. Michael Cohen deserves to tell his side of the story – subject, of course, to the advice of counsel.”
In Cohen’s ABC interview, the longtime personal attorney to Trump said he would wait until his new legal team was in place before deciding whether to cooperate with government prosecutors. Cohen is under investigation for a host of financial crimes in a case referred by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
Davis’ hiring is the latest sign that Cohen is beefing up his defense team. The White House lawyer-turned-PR consultant became a national name in the late 1990s for his work as a spokesperson for the Clinton White House during the president’s impeachment trial. Davis has remained a strong defender of the Clintons in the years since, during which time he has represented an array of highly controversial clients, including Martha Stewart, the Washington Redskins and foreign dictators.
Cohen also recently retained former New York federal prosecutor Guy Petrillo.
