President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen has re-registered as a Democrat, his attorney has confirmed. Michael Cohen was President Trump’s longtime personal attorney who served as the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) deputy finance chairman until June…
President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen has re-registered as a Democrat, his attorney has confirmed.
Background
Michael Cohen was President Trump’s longtime personal attorney who served as the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) deputy finance chairman until June.
During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Cohen acknowledged that he was a registered Democrat for years. However, he later registered as a Republican in March 2017 before taking on the leadership role with the RNC after the election. At the time, Cohen tweeted: “It took a great man to get me to make the switch”, referring to Trump.
Cohen later resigned from the post after federal prosecutors began investigating him for tax fraud, bank fraud, improper lobbying activities and violating campaign finance laws. In April, FBI agents raided his home, offices and safety boxes, seizing thousands of documents.
In August, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to eight counts total, including five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution and campaign finance law violations. Cohen failed to disclose $4.1 million in reported income, allowing him to obtain multiple loans which he would have not been able to access otherwise.
Cohen also admitted to violating campaign finance laws relating to payments to buy the silence of two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. In pleading guilty, he said Trump directed him to arrange the payments before the 2016 election.
It was later reported that Cohen agreed to sit for interviews with special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the wide-ranging investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He also apparently cooperated with another separate investigation into the Trump Foundation led by New York state investigators.
Following Cohen’s guilty plea, Trump accused Cohen of making up stories “in order to get a deal”. The president also suggested that the practice of cooperating with prosecutors as part of a plea agreement is “called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal.”
Analysis
Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney for President Trump, re-registered as a Democrat this week. His attorney Lanny Davis – who represented Cohen during his legal proceedings – tweeted that Cohen was returning to the Democratic Party. Davis also made mention of Cohen’s quote to George Stephanopoulos in July: “I put family and country first.”
He added that Cohen’s decision marked “another step in his journey” and his “distancing from the values of the current Admin.” Cohen later retweeted Davis’ post and a link to the Axios article that first reported the news.
The switch happens to come on the eve of the Friday deadline for New Yorkers to register to vote in the November midterm elections.
Assessment
Our assessment is that Cohen’s decision to make the switch publicly signals his break with Trump and his administration. We also believe this decision could potentially prompt a response from the President and criticism from Trump supporters arguing that his actions are opportunistic and representative of a person who is no longer allied with the president. Given that Davis hinted at a future Cohen interview, Cohen’s shift may be a precursor to more details to come out on the Trump-Cohen relationship.
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