Michael Cohen Biography

Michael Cohen (born Michael Dean Cohen) is an eminent American former lawyer who served as an attorney for former U.S. President Donald Trump from 2006 to 2018. He was a vice president of the Trump Organization and the personal counsel to Trump and was often described by the media as Trump’s “fixer”. Moreover, he served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and was a board member of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children’s health charity. Cohen was deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2017 to 2018.

On December 12, 2018, he was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations. He was then disbarred from practicing law in the state of New York on February 26, 2019, by the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division. On May 6, 2019, he reported to the federal near Otisvile, New York. He was employed by Trump until May 2018, a year after the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections began.

On August 21, 2018, the investigation led Cohen to plead guilty to eight counts including campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. He said he violated campaign-finance laws at the direction of Trump and “for the principal purpose of influencing” the 2016 presidential election. In November 2018, he entered a second guilty plea for lying to a Senate committee about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Michael Cohen Education

He received his education at Lawrence Woodmere Academy. Then he attended The American University where he graduated with a BA in 1988. In 1991, he earned his JD from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.

Michael Cohen Career

Michael Cohen Legal Career

In 1992, he began practicing injury law in New York working for Melvyn Estrin in Manhattan. As of 2023, he was an attorney in private practice and CEO of MLA Cruises Inc. and of the Atlantic Casino. In 2006, he was a partner at the law firm Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon. For about a year, he practiced law at the firm before joining The Trump Organization. However, he was automatically disbarred in New York following his 2018 felony convictions.

Michael Cohen Business Ventures

He was a candidate for New York City Council in 2003, where he provided a biography to the New York City Campaign Finance Board for inclusion in its voters’ guide. At the time, he was a business partner in the taxi business with”taxi king” Simon Garber. As of 2017, he was estimated to own at least 34 taxi medallions through 17 limited liability companies (LLCs). Moreover, he has been involved in real estate ventures in Manhattan including the sale and purchase of four apartment buildings between 2011 and 2014. In 2015, he purchased an Upper East Side apartment for $58 million.

Michael Cohen Politics

He volunteered for the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis. Also, he was an intern for Congressman Joe Moakley and in 2008 voted for Barack Obama although he later stated that he became disappointed with Obama. In 2003, he unsuccessfully ran for the New York City Council from the Fourth Council District (a Manhattan district) as a Republican. Michael received 4,205 votes and was defeated by Democratic candidate Eva S. Moskowitz who received 13,745 votes. He then briefly campaigned for a set in the New York State Senate in 2010. And he was a registered Democrat until March 9, 2017, when he officially registered as a Republican. On October 11, 2018, he re-registered himself as a Democrat in an effort to distance “himself from the values of the current” administration.

Michael Cohen Donald Trump

In the fall of 2006, he joined the Trump Organization. Trump hired him because Cohen was already a Trump admirer. He thus became a close confidant to Trump, maintaining an office near Trump at Trump Tower. When Trump was publicly speculating about running for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, in late 2011 Michael co-founded the website “Should Trump Run?” to draft Trump into entering the race. On April 3, 2017, he was appointed as one of three national deputy finance chairmen of the Republican National Committee along with Eliott Broidy and Louis DeJoy. Also in April 2017, he formed an alliance with Squire Patton Boggs for legal and lobbying counsel on behalf of Trump.

Rudy Giuliani announced in May 2018 that Cohen was no longer Trump’s lawyer. In July of that year, seized tapes secretly recorded by Cohen of his conversations with Trump about hush payments to Karen McDougal were disclosed to The New York Times, seemingly contradicting earlier statements by Trump denying knowledge of the payments and raising questions about campaign-finance ethics. In June 2018, he resigned as deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee. His resignation letter cited the ongoing investigations and also criticized the Trump administration’s policy of separating undocumented families at the border.

Michael Cohen Falwell scandal involvement

President of Liberty University Jerry Falwell Jr. reached out to Cohen in 2015 and asked him for a personal favor. Falwell had told Cohen that a third party had obtained compromising nude photos of Falwell’s wife Becki Falwell.

Michael Cohen’s Payment to Stormy Daniels

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the fall of 2015 was speaking to some reporters said that she had a sexual affair with Trump in 2006. In October, Cohen and Daniel’s attorney Keith M. Davidson negotiated a non-disclosure agreement under which Stormy was to be paid $130,000 hush money. In February 2018, Cohen told The New York Times that he paid the $130,000 to Daniels from his own pocket. Also, he said that the payment was not a contribution and he was not reimbursed by either the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign. That same month, he initiated a private arbitration case against Daniels, based on a non-disclosure agreement signed by Daniels in October 2016, in exchange for $130,000. In April 2018, he filed a declaration in the court saying that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in the Daniels lawsuit.

Michael Cohen Essential Consultants LLC

In October 2016, he created Essential Consuktants LLC, a Delaware shell company, to facilitate payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels. For many months thereafter, he used the LLC for an array of business activities largely unknown to the public with at least $4.4 million moving through the LLC between Trump’s election to the presidency and January 2018. Michael Avenatti (Stormy Daniels’s lawyer) in May 2018 posted a seven-page report to Twitter detailing what he said were financial transactions involving essential consultants and Cohen.

Michael Cohen Federal Investigations

As of April 2018, Michael was under federal criminal investigation by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). The FBI raided his office on April 9, 2018, at the law firm of Squire Patton Boggs as well as his home and his hotel room in the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City, pursuant to a federal search warrant. Since Michael is an attorney, the search included the seizure of materials normally protected by attorney-client privilege which is subject to a crime-fraud exception if a crime is suspected.

A few days after the raid, McClatchy reported that the Mueller investigation was in possession of evidence that Cohen traveled to Prague in August or September 2016. In response, Cohen denied having ever been t Prague as he had done in his January 2017 denial following the dossier’s case. On July 26, 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg had been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury regarding the Cohen investigation.

Michael Cohen Prison and House Arrest

On May 6, 2019, he reported to FCI Otisviller. And on May 21, 2020, he was released from prison due to concerns regarding COVID-19 in order to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest. On July 23, 2020, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered Cohen to be returned home confinement because the government had retaliated against him and violated his First Amendment rights. Alvin said Cohen would be released to home confinement on July 24, 2020. On July 24, 2020, he was released from FCI Otisville. Days later, Cohen’s attorney informed Hellerstein that Cohen hoped to accept a job offer with an unnamed political action committee to consult and make media appearances on its behalf.

Michael Cohen Age

Michael was born on August 25, 1966, therefore he is 56 years old as of June 2023. Hence he celebrates his birthday on August 25th of every year.

Michael Cohen Height

He stands at a height of 6 feet 1 inch (1.85m) tall.

Michael Cohen Family

Cohen was born in Lawrence, New York, U.S. to Maurice Cohen (Father) a Holocaust survivor who was a surgeon, and Sondra Cohen (Mother) who was a nurse. He has a brother by the name of Bryan Cohen.

Michael Cohen Wife

Michael is married to the love of his life Laura Shusterman (born in 1970). They got married in 1994. He and his wife are blessed with two kids, a daughter, Samantha Blake Cohen, and a son, Jake Ross Cohen.

Michael Cohen’s Net Worth

Cohen has a net worth of $1 million which he has earned through being an attorney.

Michael Cohen Salary

He has a monthly income of $100,000. While working for the Trump Organization, he had an annual salary of $1 million.