A huge development has taken place in the Cohen v. Trump saga, with Trump’s former fixer now claiming he was “coerced” to testify against Trump.
That revelation, which came via an op-ed written by Cohen, has Trump chomping at the bit to go after New York Attorney General Letitia James.
So much so, in fact, he is now demanding all relevant communications between the two camps.
The hush-money case against Trump was perfectly timed to create negative headlines for Donald Trump as the 2024 election cycle was at its height.
In May 2024, NPR reported on Cohen testifying in the criminal trial against Trump. Cohen, if you have forgotten, was once a key insider for Trump, his primary attorney, and his so-called “fixer.”
Regarding the alleged affair and hush-money, Cohen had testified, "[Trump] told me to work with [David Pecker of American Media Inc.] and get control over this ... and acquire the life rights.” He later added that Trump had also told him to "do what you need to do to stop this getting out."
It was later revealed that Trump had made financial arrangements to keep his alleged affairs hidden to protect his presidential campaign.
After Cohen was arrested and found guilty on charges related to the payments, he turned on Trump and was a media darling for anyone who wanted dirt on the president.
He was James’ star witness, but it now appears that is not what Cohen wanted.
In a Substack post, Cohen wrote, "I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump.”
If memory serves, Cohen mostly stated that he wanted to expose Trump for what he truly was, so this is a major reversal by someone who has been firing missiles at Trump for years. This truly is a major development in the case. This is a holier-than-thou state attorney general rigging a case to take down a presidential candidate of the opposition party. If that sounds familiar, it is because it is exactly what Democrats accused Trump of doing. That, my friends, is some high-level gaslighting.
That Substack post served as the basis for a filing by Trump’s legal team to have all communications between Cohen and James’ office turned over, reported the New York Post.
Trump’s attorneys claim they have tried to obtain these communications already, but were denied. The filing read, “In emails and a meet-and-confer, the NYAG has taken the untenable position that (i) the NYAG ‘doesn’t know’ whether such Cohen Records exist (i.e., it has no idea whether it has records of its communications with its key witness); (ii) the NYAG will not even take a short amount of time to determine whether it possesses any Cohen Records, apparently because, in the NYAG’s mistaken view, discovery is over.”
The filing continued, “In sum, the NYAG is blocking any discovery into, and possibly even preservation of, evidence of the ‘pressured and coerced’ testimony that it used to convince the trial court to enter a wrongful judgment against Defendants.”
James ran for office on the premise that she was going to take down Trump. During real-time coverage of the case, I had stated that under any other circumstance, this case would have been a slap on the wrist, a fine, penalties, and back taxes, and it would never have made the news.
If what Cohen is saying is true, it proves this entire charade was orchestrated to do exactly what James said she would do when she was running for office. That means it was nothing more than a very expensive political stunt. One could even make the case that it was an attempt to rig the election, but Democrats would never do such a thing, right? I will go on the record to say this... if what Cohen now claims is true, James should be removed from office, disbarred, and tried before a jury of her peers.
