In his new book Michael Cohen is suggesting evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, Jr., endorsed Donald Trump as a “favor” to the president’s’s now-former personal attorney, after Cohen “fixed” the Falwell couple’s problem with “racy” and “personal” photos that could have caused them problems. Cohen’s new book was released Tuesday.
“In his book, Cohen writes that he had become close to the Falwells in 2011, once securing tickets for one of their daughters to see Justin Bieber perform. He calls the Falwells ‘dear friends, more like family to me,'” Reuters reports.
“In good time, I would call in this favor, not for me, but for the Boss, at a crucial moment on his journey to the presidency.”
As Reuters reported last year, the Falwells enlisted Cohen to keep “a bunch of photographs, personal photographs” from becoming public, Cohen said in a recording, made surreptitiously by comedian Tom Arnold. “I actually have one of the photos,” he said, without going into specifics. “It’s terrible.”
Cohen, Reuters notes, does not specifically state the endorsement was the favor he called in, but it is “the first time he has linked the two issues.”
Falwell’s endorsement of Trump (he was expected to endorse Ted Cruz) and bringing on board white evangelicals, is seen as a major reason for Trump winning the White House.