By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump had a warm public reunion on Thursday with Michael Cohen, his former fixer turned foe whose court testimony contributed to Trump’s 2024 conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial.
Cohen, who is seeking a pardon, interviewed Trump on his New York radio program. He called Trump “boss” and gave a six-minute monologue on friendship and forgiveness.
In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison — and served more than a year — for a $130,000 hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election — as well as for other crimes, including cheating on his personal taxes and lying under oath to Congress.
Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 counts of falsification of business records to conceal the Daniels payment, in part due to Cohen’s testimony. He has denied the encounter with Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, and is appealing the ruling.
Trump was represented in the hush-money trial by Todd Blanche, now the U.S. attorney general. In court, Blanche called Cohen the “GLOAT,” meaning the “greatest liar of all time.”
“How do two men who spent years in an all-out public war hurling verbal and legal missiles across a massive canyon ever come back to the same room?” Cohen said. “We forgave.”
Trump, who is seeking political allies ahead of the November midterm elections, then greeted his former fixer of 15 years with a convivial: “Hello Michael. How are you, Michael?”
“I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” said Trump, who spoke to Cohen from the White House.
Cohen aired excerpts from a pre-recorded interview that focused on Trump’s favorite themes, including his campaign against immigrants and his disdain for unfavorable polls.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the interview, more of which is to be aired on Sunday.
After Trump won re-election later in 2024, a federal appeals court ordered the Manhattan judge in the hush-money trial to review more closely how the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in July 2024 giving Trump broad immunity from prosecution affected the New York case.
Cohen ended the interview segment in song, crooning a lyric from the 1978 R&B song by Peaches & Herb: “Reunited, and it feels so good…”
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; editing by Donna Bryson and Edwina Gibbs)
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