Michael Cohen makes major move after Donald Trump disses him
For the past week we’ve been hearing various major media reports, ranging from ABC News to CNN, that Michael Cohen is planning to cut a plea deal against Donald Trump. We’ve also heard from NBC News that the Feds have informed Cohen that he’s just days away from being arrested if he doesn’t complete a deal in time. Now Cohen is indeed making a major move with regard to his criminal case.
Last week Donald Trump stopped paying Cohen’s legal bills, forcing the issue and prompting Cohen to part ways with his attorneys. Now Cohen has just hired a new attorney, Guy Petrillo, to represent him in the criminal charges that he’s about to get hit with. Here’s the kicker: this guy has longtime close ties to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which is the office that will be bringing the initial charges against Cohen.
There are two things to keep in mind here. The first is that Michael Cohen is broke. That became clear when he had to use a home equity loan just to pay off Stormy Daniels, because it means he didn’t have that kind of cash on hand. Then came the various reports that his taxi business was bleeding money and deeply in debt. Cohen can’t afford to keep an attorney like Petrillo in the fold for long; it’s hard to imagine him being able to afford him long enough to make it through a trial. The second thing to keep in mind is that if you’re cutting a plea deal with SDNY, your best bet is to hire a lawyer who has a good working relationship with the SDNY.
So is Michael Cohen flipping? Vanity Fair says that after Donald Trump spoke about Cohen in the past tense the other day, saying “I always liked Michael,” Cohen felt like he was being dissed. This comes after Trump stopped paying Cohen’s legal bills. It sounds to us like Trump has figured out Cohen is going to flip on him.
