President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, hasn’t been relevant in a long time.
But he found a way to get back in the news by dropping a big claim. He claims he was coerced in both the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, and the criminal case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to testify, based on what they wanted against Trump.
“I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking,” Cohen wrote in a Substack post. “Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook.” [….]
“From the time I first began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office in connection with their investigations of President Trump, and through the trials themselves,” Cohen wrote on his new platform, “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.”
He was a key witness in both cases. He said in the Bragg case, they only wanted “testimony from me that would enable them to convict President Trump.”
“When my testimony was insufficient for a point the prosecution sought to make, prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative.”
For the James case, Cohen also alleged that the Empire State attorney general’s team “made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony” that “would go after President Trump.”
READ MORE: Priceless: Michael Cohen Begs for a Pardon From Biden on MSNBC
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So why is he saying this now after all this time? “I have witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative,” he claims. He said he wasn’t writing to try to defend Trump.
“When politics and prosecution become indistinguishable, public trust erodes; not just in individual cases, like mine and Trump’s, but in the system itself.”
I think Michael Cohen says things in his own self-interest, and perhaps he’s hoping this will help him now that the power has changed. He can’t remediate everything he’s said over the years against Trump. I think a lot of people could believe this claim, given the efforts made against Trump. But he doesn’t go into any detail, so we don’t know what impact what he’s saying could have, if any.
You can imagine Trump’s reaction to Cohen saying this now. Trump termed the actions against him a “set up from the beginning,” and said they “could not let this pass.” He said the “radical left people” should pay a “big price for this.”
BREAKING 🚨 Donald Trump said Michael Cohen said he was ‘COERCED’ by Letitia James and Alvin Bragg
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY WILD pic.twitter.com/HYMoOyBhAV
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) January 17, 2026
The cases involving Bragg and James are both currently under appeal.
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