Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer and longtime fixer, has accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of pressuring him to turn against his former client in the high-profile civil fraud and “hush money” cases that targeted the now-sitting president.
In a blistering Substack post published Friday, Cohen said he felt “compelled and coerced” to deliver testimony prosecutors wanted as they built their cases against Trump.
“Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar,” Cohen wrote, “but they share the same playbook.”
Cohen’s remarks come as Trump continues to fight the legal fallout from the cases — seeking to have Bragg’s criminal conviction reviewed by a federal appeals court and pushing to overturn the $454 million civil fraud judgment over allegations he inflated the value of his real estate empire.
‘They Wanted a Conviction — Not the Truth’
Cohen said from his earliest meetings with prosecutors, he sensed that only one outcome would satisfy them.
“From the moment I began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office — and through the trials themselves — I felt pressured to provide information and testimony that would help secure judgments and convictions against President Trump,” he wrote.
The former fixer acknowledged that he hoped cooperating would work in his favor after serving more than a year in federal prison for tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to Congress.
But, he claimed, prosecutors were uninterested in anything that didn’t advance their narrative.
“When my testimony didn’t fully support a point the prosecution wanted to make, prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to push answers that fit their storyline,” Cohen alleged.
He leveled similar accusations against James’ office, claiming investigators made it clear the testimony they wanted from him was testimony designed to “go after President Trump.”
‘Target First, Evidence Second’
Cohen said recent debate over the cases at the appellate level has not cleared Trump of wrongdoing — but has instead exposed what happens when prosecutors rush to secure guilty findings.
“When prosecutors pick their target first and then hunt for evidence to fit a predetermined narrative, witnesses get leaned on,” he wrote.
“You may ask why I’m speaking out now,” Cohen added. “The answer is simple. I’ve seen firsthand the damage this approach causes.”
“Justice must be more than effective — it must be credible,” he continued. “When politics and prosecution become indistinguishable, public trust collapses.”
Trump Fires Back: ‘A SET UP From the Beginning’
Trump quickly seized on Cohen’s claims, blasting both New York cases as politically motivated in a Truth Social post.
“This was a SET UP from the beginning,” Trump wrote. “These horrible Radical Left people, doing everything possible to destroy our Country, should pay a big price for this!”
The president added that New York’s courts should be “embarrassed” by how the cases unfolded.
“We cannot let this pass,” he wrote.
Representatives for Bragg and James did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cohen’s Complicated Credibility
Cohen was a central witness in both cases. During Trump’s civil fraud trial, he testified that he worked with former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to inflate asset values on financial statements — testimony Trump dismissed as coming from a “proven liar” who was “totally discredited.”
In the “hush money” trial, Cohen told jurors that Trump was directly involved in a scheme to pay adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged 2006 affair.
Under cross-examination, Cohen admitted to lying repeatedly in the past — including to Congress — and acknowledged stealing $60,000 from Trump, admissions defense attorneys used to attack his credibility.
Now, the fixer-turned-foe says his experience raises deeper questions about the justice system itself.
“When politics drives prosecution,” Cohen wrote, “truth becomes collateral damage.”
