Trump’s longtime attorney testified against his former boss in court but is now publicly reconciling with him.
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After a dramatic falling out that included testifying against his former boss in court, Michael Cohen is now talking about “reconciliation” with President Donald Trump, saying ahead of his radio interview with the president that the two men “forgave” each other.
Cohen interviewed Trump Aug. 20 for his radio show, and wrote in a Substack post before the conversation that it “takes far more courage to extend a hand across a divide than it does to throw stones from behind a keyboard.” The interview is scheduled to air later today.
“How can two men who spent years in a very public war, who hurled verbal missiles across an enormous legal and political canyon, ever sit down together again?” Cohen said in the post. “The answer is actually much simpler than people want it to be. We forgave.”
In a brief interview with USA TODAY, Cohen said his conversation with Trump lasted 40 minutes and was “phenomenal” but declined to offer specifics.
It marks another remarkable turn in a decades-long relationship that imploded in spectacular fashion after Trump’s 2016 presidential win. Cohen was one of Trump’s closest aides before denouncing him and testifying against him.
Cohen was sentenced to three months in prison in 2018 on nine criminal charges, pleading guilty to campaign finance violations involving hush money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He slammed Trump in court, saying: “My own weakness was blind loyalty to the man that caused me to choose the path of darkness. Time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”
While waiting to report to prison, Cohen delivered scathing testimony to Congress about his former boss, describing him as a “racist, a “con man” and a “cheat” and implicating him in the hush money payments.
Cohen later testified in the criminal case brought against Trump over falsifying business records to cover up the payment to Daniels. In his 2024 testimony, Cohen said Trump “approved” paying Daniels $130,000. Trump was convicted on 34 criminal charges the case. He subsequently won re-election and received a sentence shortly after his inauguration that did not include any jail time or a fine.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Cohen, calling him a “liar” and a “sleazebag.”
The public effort to patch things up has been in the making for a while, though. Cohen told USA TODAY that he has met with Trump three times over the last year.
“Eventually, both of us had to confront a question that is far more difficult than deciding who was right. Was the past going to own the future?” Cohen wrote in the Aug. 20 Substack post explaining his evolving relationship with Trump. “For me, the answer became no.”
“Loyalty doesn’t mean pretending someone never hurt you. Forgiveness doesn’t mean surrendering your principles. Reconciliation doesn’t mean rewriting history,” Cohen added. “It means deciding that your history doesn’t have to end with your worst chapter.”
Making nice with Trump could benefit Cohen if he decided to seek presidential clemency for his 2018 conviction. He told Politico he wasn’t sure if he’d seek clemency.
“We’ll see,” Cohen said. “Will I make that request down the road? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not.”