Michael Cohen FBI raid: 6 things to know about Donald Trump’s personal lawyer

By Marcus Baram

April 09, 2018

Today, the FBI raided the office of President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen, reports the New York Times. The bureau seized records, including communications, related to a $130,000 payment he reportedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels (aka Stephanie Clifford), who claimed to have had an affair with Trump.

Here are six things you need to know about Cohen:

    When Trump lost a chance to make a cameo in Sharknado 3 to Mark Cuban, Cohen reportedly called a producer and shouted: “How dare you? Donald wanted to do this. We’re going to sue you! We’re going to shut the entire show down.“

    He has such a predilection for threatening journalists in wannabe mobster speak that he should be sued by Martin Scorsese and the whole cast of Goodfellas. He once told a Daily Beast reporter: “So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me? You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up . . .  for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet . . . ” When Megyn Kelly questioned Trump about his treatment of women, Cohen retweeted threats to her, such as one that said, “Let’s gut her.”

    He doesn’t think spousal rape is illegal. When asked by a reporter in 2015 about Ivana Trump’s claim during her divorce from Trump that Trump had raped her (which she later denied), Cohen replied: “[U]nderstand that by the very definition, you can’t rape your spouse. You cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law.”

    Last year, he owed New York City about $40,000 in unpaid taxes for a fleet of taxi medallions he owns.

    He’s so loyal to the president that he once told ABC: If “you do something wrong” to Trump, “I’m going to come at you, grab you by the neck, and I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished.”

    Amid the controversy over Trump’s defense of white supremacists in Charlottesville last summer, Cohen went out of his way to assert his lack of racism, tweeting eight photos of himself with black “friends.”
Fast Company

(27)