Former Trump attorney Cohen is said to have burned book manuscript in prison

Icon: enlarge

Michael Cohen (2018)

Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal attorney, allegedly burned the original manuscript of his proposed investigative book about his ex-boss during his detention - for fear of it being confiscated by guards, Vanity Fair magazine reported. When Cohen was about to be transferred to solitary confinement in April because of a conflict with another inmate, he feared correctional officers would leak the contents of the 500-page manuscript to the media.

Cohen was evidently concerned that the guards were loyal to the US president and that the manuscript would also be passed on to the president's staff. On the first night of Passover, Vanity Fair reports, Cohen burned the manuscript in the usual fire that was kindled for Jewish inmates to burn hametz or sourdough products. However, Cohen's wife is said to have had access to a backup copy of the manuscript on a USB stick.

The book "Disloyal" should appear in the coming weeks. "I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them," wrote Cohen in a foreword published online. "From golden showers at a Vegas sex club to tax fraud to dealing with corrupt ex-Soviet officials, conspiracies and killings to silence Trump's secret lovers, I not only witnessed the president's rise - I was an active one and avid participant. "

Beef with everyone in the Trump family

Cohen was briefly released from prison and under house arrest in May, but was returned to prison for violating conditions. Cohen's legal advisor Lanny Davis speculated, however, that the re-imprisonment could have been due to the former Trump intimate wanting to publish his book in the coming months. Cohen initially wanted to oppose the requirements that he could not speak to the media and not publish the book, Davis told reporters.

The former attorney is also embroiled in a lawsuit with the Trump organization, which pledged to pay his legal fees during law enforcement by former special adviser Robert Mueller before stepping down. Cohen is reportedly planning to testify before the prosecutor about an investigation into the Trump organization and the president's eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and his accountant Allen Weisselberg.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018 for tax and financial crimes and false testimony. Before the 2016 presidential election, the lawyer paid hush money to two women who said they had had sex with Trump. One of them is the porn actress Stormy Daniels. Cohen was violating campaign funding laws. He said he had financed $ 130,000 in hush money out of pocket. The payment is legally explosive: if it was made to avert negative coverage of Trump shortly before the election, it should have been declared as an election donation.