The lawyer for President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, launched a crowdfunding campaign Tuesday to support his client after Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal charges and implicated the president in a hush-money scheme meant to silence two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump.
The GoFundMe campaign, dubbed the Michael Cohen Truth Fund, had more than $40,000 in donations by Wednesday morning with a set goal of $500,000.
Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, said on the campaign page that with Tuesday's guilty plea, "Michael decided to put his family and his country first."
"Now Michael needs your financial help -- to pay his legal fees," Davis said. He added that all donations will go toward helping Cohen and his family "as he goes forward on his journey to tell the truth about Donald Trump."
Davis said Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Cohen and his family are "suffering" as a result of his decision to speak out against Trump.
“We do ask everybody who is interested in Michael being able to tell the truth to help him out,” Davis said.
Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges including tax evasion and a campaign finance violation related to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who claimed they had affairs with Trump years before he was elected to office. Trump has denied the allegations.
In federal court in New York, Cohen said the payments were made in coordination with Trump to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The president took to Twitter on Wednesday to accuse Cohen of “(making) up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’” In the same tweet he praised his former campaign manager Paul Manafort for refusing to “’break’” in a separate case stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling.
>> Paul Manafort guilty on 8 charges in bank fraud, conspiracy trial; mistrial declared on 10 counts
A Virginia jury found Manafort guilty Tuesday on eight of 18 charges, including tax fraud, bank fraud and hiding foreign bank accounts. Although the charges stemmed from the Mueller probe, they did not touch on questions of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election or its possible ties to Trump campaign officials.
About the Author
