Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, said Friday that he felt pressured by New York prosecutors to provide testimony that supported their cases against Trump, including a civil fraud lawsuit and a criminal prosecution.
In a post published on his Substack account, Cohen said lawyers from the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sought information that would advance their legal actions against Trump and his businesses.
“From the time I first began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office, I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump,” Cohen wrote.
Cohen said he cooperated with prosecutors in hopes of receiving favorable treatment following his own legal troubles, but alleged that investigators used leading questions when his statements did not align with their expectations.
“During my time with prosecutors, both in preparation for and during the trials, it was clear they were interested only in testimony from me that would enable them to convict President Trump. When my testimony was insufficient for a point the prosecution sought to make, prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative,” he wrote in his Substack post.
“I experienced a similar dynamic in the Attorney General’s civil case. Letitia James made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that, if elected, she would go after President Trump. Her office made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony that would help them do just that. Again, I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking,” he added.
“Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook. Both used their platforms to elevate their profiles, to claim the mantle of the officials who “took down Trump.” In doing so, they blurred the line between justice and politics; and in that blur, the credibility of both suffered,” the former Trump fixer/lawyer noted further, adding: “That context matters now more than ever.”
Cohen previously pleaded guilty to federal charges including tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to Congress, and served more than a year in prison. He later became a key witness in multiple cases involving Trump.
Cohen testified in James’ civil fraud case against Trump and the Trump Organization, which resulted in a judgment imposing substantial financial penalties. That ruling is under appeal.
He also testified in Bragg’s criminal case related to hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has characterized the investigations as politically motivated.
“You may reasonably ask why I am speaking out now. The answer is simple,” Cohen’s post continued.
“I have witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek vidence to fit a predetermined narrative. I have lived inside that process,” he said. “I have suffered from that process. My family has suffered from that process. And as courts now reconsider where the Bragg and James cases belong, how they were brought and how they were tried; that experience is relevant. More today than ever before.”
Whatever the ultimate outcome of Trump’s cases, “the larger lesson should not be lost,” Cohen concluded. “Justice must be more than effective; it must be credible. When politics and prosecution become indistinguishable, public trust erodes; not just in individual cases, like mine and Trump’s, but in the system itself. That erosion serves no one, regardless of party, personality, or power.”
