The president’s former attorney Michael Cohen is denying that Jerry Falwell Jr.’s endorsement of President Trump was done in exchange for burying explicit photos of Falwell’s wife.
Appearing Tuesday on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Cohen pushed back on the implication that the disgraced evangelical leader’s endorsement of Trump was directly tied to Cohen’s work to prevent the racy photos from getting out. He also pointed out that he still maintains a close relationship with the Falwell family.
“Rachel, I didn’t have to use that as a chit, so to speak, with the Falwells,” Cohen told Maddow in response to questions about the endorsement. “I spoke to them no less than two hours ago today. I speak to them on a regular basis. They communicated with me while I was in prison, and they were the last people I saw before I self-surrendered to Otisville satellite camp.”
“So, I didn’t need to use that as a chit, all I needed to do was to ask them, and they would have done — they would have done it anyway because I asked,” he added.
“There was no implication that they’d be at risk in some way with your knowledge of those photos that the endorsement may have been something that they felt that they had to do in order to protect themselves?” Maddow asked.
Cohen said there was no implication.
Questions were raised about the endorsement after the publication of Cohen’s book, Disloyal: A Memoir, where Cohen writes about suppressing the photos, comparing to the “catch and kill” method of burying unfavorable stories that were obtained by tabloids.
“In good time, I would call in this favor, not for me, but for the Boss, at a crucial moment on his journey to the presidency,” Cohen wrote.
Falwell, who resigned amid scandal from his position as president of Liberty University, also denied to Reuters any sort of quid pro quo stemming from his endorsement of Trump.
He told the news organization that “someone stole some pictures I took of my wife in the back yard. Topless. Big deal. OK?” But Falwell denied that the photos were connected to his endorsement.
“It was no quid pro quo,” Falwell said. “There was no me supporting Trump because of whatever Michael was doing.”
Prior to his resignation, Falwell revealed to the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard that his wife, Becki, had an affair with a pool attendant the couple met in Miami and was being blackmailed by the man. The following day Reuters reported that the man, Giancarlo Granda, had been in a yearslong sexual relationship with Becki and that Jerry enjoyed watching them, although Jerry has denied that he was involved in Becki and Granda’s relationship.
