Democracy Dies in Darkness
The Trump Cases

How Michael Cohen went from Trump’s fixer to a key witness against him

For years, Cohen said he fixed Trump’s problems. Now the disbarred lawyer is the star witness for New York prosecutors trying to link Trump to an illegal hush money plot.

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May 13, 2024 at 6:53 p.m. EDT
Michael Cohen exits court in New York on Monday after testifying. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
7 min

NEW YORK — At first, Michael Cohen testified about all the problems he fixed for Donald Trump — the boss whose praise made Cohen feel like he was “on top of the world.”

When reporters angered Trump, Cohen threatened them. When a Miss USA contestant criticized Trump’s beauty pageant, he sprang into legal action. When Trump ran for president and warned that “there’s going to be a lot of women coming forward,” Cohen was ready, he said — working behind the scenes to suppress two women’s claims that Trump had sex with them while married.