Michael Cohen burned book manuscript to prevent leak by pro-Trump prison guards: report
By Zack Budryk - 08/24/20 03:59 PM EDT
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, burned his original tell-all manuscript in prison for fear it would be confiscated by his guards, Vanity Fair reported Monday.
In April, as Cohen was about to be transferred to solitary confinement over a fight with another inmate, he was fearful correctional officers would leak the contents of the 500-page manuscript to the media, according to an account by the magazine.
Cohen also perceived the guards as overwhelmingly pro-Trump and was concerned they would also leak it to associates of the president. As the transfer occurred on the first night of Passover, Cohen burned the manuscript in the customary fire built for Jewish inmates to burn hametz, or leavened products.
Cohen’s wife, however, had access to a backup copy of the manuscript on a thumb drive, according to the magazine. The book, “Disloyal,” is set to be released in coming weeks.
“I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them,” Cohen wrote in a foreword posted online. “From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump’s clandestine lovers, I wasn’t just a witness to the president’s rise—I was an active and eager participant.”
Cohen earlier this year refused to waive his right to publish a book in exchange for compassionate release during the coronavirus pandemic. He was returned to prison but ordered released by a judge, who ruled the Bureau of Prisons’s clause violated his freedom of speech.
The former attorney is also engaged in a legal battle with the Trump Organization, which he has said pledged to pay his legal fees during former special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecution of him before backing out.
A judge on Thursday ruled Cohen can continue his case, Vanity Fair reported. Cohen, if allowed by the court, reportedly plans to seek depositions from the president’s eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, as well as his accountant Allen Weisselberg. |
