Michael Cohen says he was ‘coerced’ by Letitia James and Alvin Bragg to turn on Trump
Cohen accused Letitia James and Alvin Bragg of forcing him to testify against his former client, Donald Trump. (Robert Miller)
By Josh Christenson and Victor Nava
Ex-legal fixer Michael Cohen on Friday accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of forcing him to testify against his former client, Donald Trump, as part of their civil fraud and “hush money” cases against the now-sitting president.
“I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking,” Cohen wrote in a Substack post. “Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook.”
Cohen took to the independent journalists’ platform to reveal his thoughts about participating in the legal proceedings, as Trump seeks to have his appeal to overturn Bragg’s conviction heard by a federal appeals court.
“From the time I first began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office in connection with their investigations of President Trump, and through the trials themselves,” Cohen wrote on his new platform, “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.”
“Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook,” Cohen wrote in a Substack post.AP
Cohen’s first-person account claimed he hoped by becoming involved in the trials that defined the years before Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025 that his cooperation would be looked upon favorably after serving more than one year in federal prison for tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to Congress.
“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,” he noted of Bragg’s case.
“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.”
For the James case, Cohen also alleged that the Empire State attorney general’s team “made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony” that “would go after President Trump.”
“You may reasonably ask why I am speaking out now. The answer is simple. I have witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative,” he concluded.
“Justice must be more than effective; it must be credible,” he added. “When politics and prosecution become indistinguishable, public trust erodes.”
Trump, reacting to Cohen’s coercion allegations, slammed the two New York cases against him as a “SET UP from the beginning,” in a Truth Social post.
“These horrible Radical Left people, doing everything possible to destroy our Country, should pay a big price for this!” the president wrote.
“New York Courts, with many fair and wonderful Judges, are embarrassed by what has happened! We cannot let this pass,” Trump said.
Representatives for Bragg and James did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
Cohen took to the independent journalists’ platform to reveal his thoughts about participating in the legal proceedings, as Trump seeks to have his appeal to overturn Bragg’s conviction heard by a federal appeals court.Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Cohen testified during Trump’s civil fraud trial that he worked with ex-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg to inflate the value of Trump’s assets on financial filings.
Trump argued that Cohen was a “proven liar” and “totally discredited,” in response to his testimony.
The president’s fixer-turned-foe told jurors during the “hush money” trial that Trump was intimately involved in a scheme to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels, in an effort to keep her from going public about claims of a 2006 sexual encounter.
At trial, Cohen copped to telling a slew of lies and even stealing $60,000 from his ex-boss as defense attorneys questioned the reliability of his testimony.
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