Cohen Hiring Ex-SDNY Prosecutor Petrillo as New Counsel, Reports Say
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, has reportedly hired former federal prosecutor Guy Petrillo to represent him in the criminal probe against him.
June 20, 2018 at 01:17 PM
4 minute read
Michael Cohen arrives at federal court on April 16. Photo: AP/Mary Altaffer Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, has reportedly hired former federal prosecutor Guy Petrillo to represent him in the criminal probe against him. Cohen's retention of Petrillo, which was reported by several media outlets on Tuesday, comes less than a week after it was reported that Cohen's legal team from McDermott, Will & Emery was dropping him as a client. Petrillo did not respond to requests for comment. Cohen would be hiring the former prosecutor, who spent more than eight years with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, amid reports that Cohen has expressed willingness to cooperate with Southern District prosecutors to alleviate pressure on his family, CNN reports. Petrillo, a name partner at Petrillo Klein & Boxer, served as chief of the criminal division at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York from January 2008 to October 2009, according to his bio page on his firm's website. He also previously served in the office's criminal division from 1990 to 1997, in which he had stints as the division's chief appellate attorney and head of its narcotics division. Cohen was represented by McDermott partners Stephen Ryan and Todd Harrison, but reportedly parted ways over the cost of Cohen's litigation. Ryan did not respond to a request for comment. The McDermott attorneys were tasked with reviewing the roughly 3.7 million documents that investigators in April seized from Cohen's home, office and apartment. Michael Avenatti, who represents adult film actress Stormy Daniels, an interested party in the Cohen investigation, said in an email that he sees the retention of Petrillo as a step up from the McDermott attorneys. Earlier this month, Avenatti faced off in court with Ryan over Avenatti's pro hac vice motion to appear in the case, with Ryan arguing that Avenatti should be kept out of the case for taking part in the release of information about a bank account that Cohen allegedly used to pay $130,000 to Clifford for her to keep quiet about having had a sexual liaison with Trump. “This hire is a huge upgrade from Mr. Ryan,” Avenatti said. “Night and day as it relates to quality of representation.” Also on Wednesday, Cohen reportedly stepped down from his post as deputy finance chair for the Republican National Committee, writing in a letter to the RNC chair that it “simply is impossible” to conduct his role for the RNC full-time in the midst of investigations by the Southern District U.S. Attorney's Office and special counsel Robert Mueller, according to ABC News. Cohen also used the letter to express criticism for the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents when families are caught trying to cross the southern border. (Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday to rescind the policy.) "As the son of a Polish Holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart-wrenching,” Cohen said. “While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips." From 2007 to Trump's inauguration in January 2017, Cohen worked for the Trump Organization as special counsel to Trump, focusing mainly on real estate, contract and litigation matters, according to court documents. Cohen owes some of his largess to taxi cabs: he owned taxi cab medallions that were managed by Evgeny Freidman, a business associate of Cohen's who is perhaps best known as New York City's “Taxi King.” Last year, Freidman was charged with four counts of criminal tax fraud and one count of first-degree grand larceny, which are class B felonies, for taking part in a scheme to pocket $5 million in surcharges on cab rides that were supposed to be turned over to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In May, Freidman pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree criminal tax fraud and was ordered to pay a total of $1 million in restitution to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. He has agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness.
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