According to a report from the Daily Beast, Donald Trump was very displeased that his former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen was given an early release from jail due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cohen, who had been serving three years as part of a plea deal over making hush-money payments in the service of the president, has been working on a tell-all book about Trump that is reportedly going to be released before the election.
According to the report, “the president was visibly agitated, bemoaning the early release of Michael Cohen, his former fixer and lawyer turned ‘rat’ for the feds.”
One source close to the president stated, “He was not pleased when he found out Michael was getting out early.”
Of greater concern to the president is the book, with the report stating Trump may try to block its release via the courts.
According to the report, the president is, “… pursuing legal options against Cohen, if anything in his ex-fixer’s upcoming, dishy book on Trump breaks attorney-client privilege or is deemed defamatory or libelous, according to two individuals familiar with the matter.”
“Trump is said to be particularly irritated by what Cohen could detail in his upcoming, potentially explosive memoir, which was first reported by The Daily Beast, and whether its contents would perturb Trump enough to sue Cohen. This new manuscript comes two years after Cohen’s hopes of publishing a prior memoir—a pro-Trump screed with the working title of Trump Revolution—were dashed amid his escalating legal woes,” the report continues.
According to an associate of Cohen, “The stories that will be in the book aren’t privileged. The stories wouldn’t violate attorney-client privilege. They are stories about Trump’s personality and behavior that would raise an eyebrow. There are stories about what it’s like being around this man and things that he did that most people typically do not do. A lot of it will be about looking at things he’s said and done with women and other [politically incorrect] things. It’ll be an insider’s look about what it was like to be alongside the president for 12 years.”
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