Trump trashes New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, ‘drunk/drugged up loser’ former aide

In a flurry of early Saturday morning tweets, sent from Florida, Trump called the White House correspondent a “third rate reporter,” suggesting Haberman and her colleagues make up their sources.

“The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will ‘flip,'” Trump tweeted. “They use non-existent ‘sources’ and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!”

Trump was lashing out at the Times’ coverage of Cohen, who is under investigation for possibly committing bank fraud and violating campaign finance rules. On Friday, the newspaper published a story titled, “Michael Cohen Has Said He Would Take a Bullet for Trump. Maybe Not Anymore,” in which Haberman was a co-author. Following an FBI raid on Cohen’s hotel room and office earlier this month, where agents secured documents, including those concerning the $130,000 payment he made to Stormy Daniels, the porn star with whom he signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2016 about her alleged extramarital affair with Trump, the Times report describes a call Trump made to Cohen, citing unnamed sources.

The story also includes a quote from a person who worked for Trump — Sam Nunberg, a former aide to his campaign — who describes how Cohen now has “leverage” over Trump, representing a new dynamic in their relationship. Trump’s talk of someone being “drunk/drugged up” could be a reference to Nunberg’s wild media blitz last month, during which he was asked by a CNN anchor if he was drunk because she smelled alcohol on his breath.

The story also quotes longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone as saying, “He [Cohen] owns some of the finest Trump real estate in the country — paid top dollar for it, too.” Stone, who also served as an adviser to Trump’s campaign, told the Palm Beach Post, the “drunk/drugged up loser” description was “Not a reference to me.” Meanwhile Nunberg told CNN, “I have no idea who POTUS is talking about so I have no response.”

Other longtime Trump associates have notably made similar comments about the threat Cohen poses to Trump. He recently spoke to Jay Goldberg, his lawyer in the 1990s and early 2000s, for guidance on the recent fallout and criminal investigation involving Cohen, and according to the Wall Street Journal, Goldberg told Trump that Cohen is not be trusted because he “will never stand up” for him if pressured by federal prosecutors. Goldberg also said the prospect of Cohen being compelled to testify in tandem with the documents obtained by the FBI poses a bigger threat to Trump than special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Trump has long called the special counsel probe a “witch hunt.”

Despite Trump’s attack on Haberman specifically and claims to not speak to, he is known to call the reporter from his hometown often. “He wouldn’t talk to me as much as he does if I wasn’t at the Times,” Haberman once said on a podcast, according to a Vanity Fair piece in October 2017. “That’s just the reality. He craves the paper’s approval.”

Haberman responded to Trump’s attacks by noting that the president misspelled her last name, referring to his initial, now-deleted tweet in which he spelled her last name as “Habberman,” and suggesting that the report may have “touched a nerve.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include information about Roger Stone, as it’s not clear whether Trump’s tweet was referring to him or Sam Nunberg.