Michael Cohen Donations Flood in After Lanny Davis Launches GoFundMe Campaign
Whether they advised him to admit to the government's allegations or not, Michael Cohen's guilty plea may have an immediate upside for his lawyers.
August 22, 2018 at 12:29 PM
2 minute read
Michael Cohen arrives at federal court in Manhattan on April 26. Photo Credit: David Handschuh/ALM
Among all the ways Michael Cohen's guilty plea could be a game-changer, here's one more: Helping guarantee a paycheck for his lawyers.
Cohen, President Donald Trump's former longtime lawyer, admitted in court on Tuesday that he made illegal campaign payments to silence damaging information about then-candidate Trump before the 2016 election. Since then his lawyer Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton, has suggested Cohen is eager to tell the “rest of the story” and asked why the president shouldn't also be considered guilty.
Amid his client's plea hearing and his own media appearances Tuesday, Davis created a GoFundMe page, MichaelCohenTruthFund.com, to raise funds for Cohen's legal fees. In just 12 hours, more than 1,000 people had already pledged more than $40,000 towards a $500,000 goal. The funds were quickly rising at noon on Wednesday.
“Michael decided to put his family and his country first. Now Michael needs your financial help—to pay his legal fees,” reads the solicitation on the site. “The Michael Cohen truth fund is a transparent trust account, with all donations going to help Michael Cohen and his family as he goes forward on his journey to tell the truth about Donald Trump.”
In addition to Washington, D.C.-based, Davis, Cohen is represented by Guy Petrillo of New York's Petrillo Klein & Boxer. Petrillo and his partner Amy Lester appeared alongside Cohen at Tuesday's plea hearing in Manhattan federal court.
The fundraiser's early success is likely attributable in part to Davis plugging it on NBC's “Today” show and MSNBC's “Morning Joe” on Wednesday morning. Whether the fund reaches its goal remains to be seen, but a similar fundraiser for fired FBI agent Peter Strzok—who has been criticized by Trump and served as a hero for the president's political opponents—has collected more than $442,000 in just eight days.
In response to the news about Cohen, Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to share his evaluation of his former fixer.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump tweeted.
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