Cohen Wants Trump To Pay His Legal Fees Because Of His Loyalty To POTUS

Michael Cohen, an attorney for President-elect Donald Trump, arrives in Trump Tower in New York, Friday, Dec. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen wants the President to foot his mounting legal fees, including those associated with the hiring of his new lawyer, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

According to people familiar with the matter who spoke with the WSJ, Cohen has been grumbling to associates in recent months that he’s frustrated Trump hasn’t even offered to cover some of his expenses, which he says are “bankrupting” him. Cohen reportedly has told friends that he thinks Trump owes him some support, given his ongoing loyalty to Trump and the Trump Organization spanning over the course of a decade.

Several outlets reported on Tuesday that Cohen hired a new lawyer — Guy Petrillo — to represent him in the Southern District of New York’s criminal probe into his business dealings. Several news outlets reported last week that Cohen was planning to break with his legal team, partially due to Cohen’s payment issues.

Trump’s family has paid for a portion of Cohen’s legal expenses after his house, hotel and office were raided by the FBI in April, including costs associated with reviewing the records that were nabbed in the raid. The Trump campaign has also paid at least $230,000 of Cohen’s legal expenses, but only those related to his representation in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election, not the separate criminal probe.

Read WSJ’s full report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. Let me know how that goes for ya.

  2. That loyalty goes one way, genius, always to, never from. I think we could argue you never really even knew this guy you’ve ruined your life for.

  3. Loyalty is like a one-way ratchet with Spanky, he demands it and it never goes the other direction. There is also an implied threat in Cohen’s request for money and I wonder if Cohen is setting the stage to flip on Spanky. I hope, I hope, I hope. .

  4. Trump, when Cohen flips: “He begged me to pay his lawyer bills. But, when I found out what a bad guy he was, I said ‘No.’ So, then he started saying all the fake nasty things about me that Mueller and the 13 Angry Democrats made up and made him say. And STILL No Collusion. No Obstruction. WITCH HUNT.”

  5. I thought Cohen was a multimillionaire. Granted his legal bills aren’t chump change right now, but against a backdrop of a few (or tens of) millions of dollars they can’t be a large percentage of his net worth.

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