How Michael Cohen’s plea for attention from Trump was snubbed by the president

Michael Cohen turned on President Trump and cooperated with federal prosecutors after his longtime boss refused to speak to him or consider his request for a pardon, it has been reported.

Trump and his team of lawyers, chief among them Rudy Giuliani, began to keep a distance from Cohen after the FBI raided his offices in April 2018.

With Cohen in legal trouble, he asked his lawyers to reach out to Giuliani to gauge whether the president would be open to pardoning his former fixer, according to emails obtained by The New York Times.

But Giuliani never offered a reply.

President Trump

Michael Cohen (left), President Trump’s (right) longtime lawyer and fixer, turned on his ex-boss when it became apparent that he would not be receiving a pardon, according to The New York Times

After a number of unflattering news articles about Cohen began to appear in the press, he blamed Trump and his allies.

Trump, at this point, also stopped covering Cohen’s mounting legal expenses.

Last June, while Cohen was telling friends he was suicidal, his legal adviser, Robert Costello, reached out to Giuliani.

‘Basically he needs a little loving and respect booster,’ Costello texted Giuliani.

‘He is not thinking clearly because he feels abandoned.’

But by this point, Trump decided to essentially cut ties with Cohen.

‘What we had here was a failure to communicate,’ said Robert Costello, who was Cohen’s legal advisor at the time.

Costello tried to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Cohen and Giuliani in order to get both sides ‘on the same page.’

‘My mission was to get everyone tuned in to the same channel,’ Costello told the Times.

‘My thought was a face-to-face meeting among all the lawyers together with Cohen would put everyone on the same channel.

‘The meeting never happened, and the rest is history.’

Cohen reached out to Costello, who has been friends with Giuliani for decades, because he believed the president could save him with a pardon.

‘I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very very useful for you,’ Costello emailed Cohen just days after the president hired Giuliani as his attorney.

‘Great news,’ Cohen replied.

Costello and Giuliani had a conversation, after which Costello emailed Cohen: ‘They are in our corner. You have friends in high places.’

At that point, Cohen thought Trump had his back. But it soon became apparent that this was no longer the case.

Cohen’s lawyers could not get an answer from Giuliani about a possible pardon.

Trump also called in to Fox & Friends and downplayed the legal work that Cohen did for him, saying it was a ‘tiny, tiny little fraction.’

Cohen's advisers reached out to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani (above) about a possible pardon, but Giuliani never got back to them

Cohen’s advisers reached out to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani (above) about a possible pardon, but Giuliani never got back to them

A week later, Giuliani went on Fox News and said that Trump paid Cohen back for the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

From Cohen’s vantage point, Trump and his lawyer, Giuliani, were implicating him in crimes by revealing information publicly.

When the Trump Organization stopped paying Cohen’s legal fees, which reached about $1.7million in May, Cohen began to seriously consider cooperating with the feds.

He declared on ABC News’ Good Morning America: ‘My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will.’

Cohen then hired Lanny Davis, the Democrat and friend of the Clintons, as his adviser.

In August, Cohen traveled to Washington, DC, where he spent hours with Mueller’s investigators.

He then hired a new lawyer, Guy Petrillo, a former federal prosecutor who worked in the Southern District of New York alongside James Comey.

Comey was fired as FBI director by Trump.

Giuliani told the Times that the Trump team minimized contact with Cohen because they feared the president would be exposed to possible charges of witness tampering.

‘It seemed like an unfortunate but sensible decision,’ Giuliani said of the decision to turn their back on Cohen.

‘The more I look back at it, the more I wonder if it was inevitable that Michael was going to crack.’

And crack he did.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to two campaign finance violations related to payments he arranged to Daniels and McDougal.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to two campaign finance violations related to payments he arranged to Stormy Daniels (above) and McDougal

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to two campaign finance violations related to payments he arranged to Stormy Daniels (above) and McDougal

Daniels, an adult film star, was paid hush money to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump more than 10 years ago.

McDougal, a former Playboy model, was also paid to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Cohen told prosecutors that Trump, who has denied having an affair with Daniels and McDougal, ordered him to make the payments.

In addition to the campaign finance crimes, Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax fraud and one count of making false statements to a bank.

In November, Cohen was charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of lying to Congress about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison. He is scheduled to begin his sentence next month.

Cohen began to help federal prosecutors in hopes of getting his prison sentence reduced.

Even after Mueller found that Trump did not collude with Russia during the 2016 elections, there are still multiple criminal investigations ongoing against the president.

Trump as well as other members of the Trump Organization could face criminal charges for directing Cohen to make the hush money payments.

Federal investigators are also probing potential financial crimes committed by Trump’s inaugural committee.

The committee could be criminally liable for accepting illegal payments as well as for providing favors to donors.

Trump with Karen McDougal

Karen McDougal

Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, was paid hush money to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump denies having an affair with McDougal and Daniels

Cohen has cooperated with this investigation as well.

There are also investigations being handled by authorities in the State of New York.

In June 2018, the state’s attorney general filed a civil lawsuit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation and its directors – President Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump – alleging a ‘pattern of persistent illegal conduct, occurring over more than a decade.’

The charity is accused of abusing its tax-exempt status and of using its resources to help Trump’s presidential campaign and promoting Trump’s business interests.

The Trumps agreed to dissolve the lawsuit last December, but the state is seeking monetary damages.

It also wants to ban the Trumps from serving as directors of nonprofit boards for several years.

New York State is also investigating the Trump family for alleged tax crimes related to the foundation.

The state is also looking into decades worth of suspected violations of tax law by the Trump family after The New York Times wrote a lengthy expose showing how Fred Trump and his son, Donald, allegedly dodged tax through various schemes. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk