President Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen has reportedly confided in friends that he does not expect his former boss will pardon him.
Cohen, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, is under criminal investigation in New York. The FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room in April, seeking bank and business records on Cohen’s dealing in the taxi industry, his communications with the Trump campaign, and information on payments made to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump.
“I brought up the pardon, and he said, ‘I don’t think so. I just don’t think so,’” an unnamed friend of Cohen’s told CNN. “He’s certain in his mind that he has been dismissed.”
Another friend who speaks frequently with Cohen told the cable network that the two have discussed a possible pardon and Cohen is not “counting on it.”
“His mindset is of someone who is operating under the assumption that he is not getting that, though of course he doesn’t know one way or the other,” the second friend said.
Cohen told ABC in his first in-depth interview since the FBI raid that his “first loyalty” is to his family and his country.
“To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty,” he said Monday.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Cohen has added Lanny Davis, a former White House lawyer to President Bill Clinton, to his legal counsel.
“Michael Cohen deserves to tell his side of the story — subject, of course, to the advice of counsel,” Davis said.
