President Donald Trump’s attorneys are now pressing for something that could create serious trouble for prosecutors in New York. They are demanding access to every communication between Michael Cohen and the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James. The reason behind the request is straightforward. Cohen now says the testimony he gave against Trump may not have been entirely voluntary.
Cohen once worked as Trump’s personal lawyer. Later, he became a major witness in several cases filed against the former president. Recently, Cohen posted an article on his Substack that caught a lot of attention. The article carried the title “When Politics Blind Justice.” In that piece, Cohen explained how government lawyers positioned him as the central witness in their cases against Trump.
Trump’s legal team says Cohen’s recent statements raise serious doubts about how those cases were built.
‘In sum, the NYAG is blocking any discovery into, and possibly even preservation of, evidence of the “pressured and coerced” testimony that it used to convince the trial court to enter a wrongful judgment against Defendants.’
That claim now sits at the center of Trump’s legal argument. His lawyers believe prosecutors may have concealed information about how Cohen’s testimony was obtained.
Cohen described the pressure he says he experienced while working with investigators.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL“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, 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.
To understand the situation, it helps to look back at 2019. That was when prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg first contacted Cohen. At that time, Cohen was already serving a three-year prison sentence. He had very little leverage in those discussions.
Cohen later explained what he was thinking during that period. He wanted to return home and rebuild his life with his family. He admitted that one of the first questions he asked prosecutors concerned how cooperation might benefit him personally.
Cohen eventually left prison in September 2020. He completed the remainder of his sentence while under home confinement.
After his release, Cohen continued meeting with prosecutors. He believed that helping them might reduce the restrictions he was still facing.
“After my release, I continued to meet with prosecutors and hoped that, in exchange for my cooperation, my home confinement and later my supervised release sentence would be shortened,” Cohen wrote. “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.”
Cohen also claimed prosecutors frequently steered him toward certain responses during questioning.
He said investigators asked, “inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative.”
According to Cohen, this pattern did not occur only with Manhattan prosecutors. He described a similar experience connected to the civil case filed by Attorney General Letitia James.
“Letitia James made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that, if elected, she would go after President Trump,” Cohen continued. “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.”
Cohen argued that both James and Bragg followed the same strategy while building their cases against Trump.
He said they used “the same playbook” and damaged their credibility by blurring “the line between justice and politics.”
Cohen also explained why he chose to speak publicly about the issue now.
“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,” Cohen added.
The legal battles connected to these cases are still unfolding.
In August, a mid-level appeals court overturned the $454 million penalty that Letitia James had secured against Trump. With interest, the total had reached nearly $500 million. James filed an appeal one month later.
The criminal case handled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg ended differently. Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in 2024. The judge later issued an unconditional discharge. That means the convictions remain on record, yet no punishment was imposed.
Trump has filed an appeal seeking to have those convictions removed.
Attention has now shifted to what may have taken place behind closed doors between Cohen and prosecutors.
On Wednesday, Trump’s attorneys delivered a demand letter to Letitia James’ office. The letter asks for all records of communications between Cohen and her prosecutors. The New York Post first reported the request. It remains unclear whether Trump’s legal team has made the same request to Alvin Bragg’s office.
Trump’s lawyers say those communications could have played a critical role during the trial.
They state the documents “would have been vital for Defendants to use in cross-examining” Cohen.
According to their filing, the Attorney General’s office did not produce any of those records.
They wrote that the office “never produced any of the Cohen Records concerning its meetings with Cohen about President Trump and his businesses, despite Defendants’ documented demands that the NYAG do so.”
The attorneys also described the response they received from James’ office.
“In emails and a meet-and-confer, the NYAG has taken the untenable position that (i) the NYAG ‘doesn’t know’ whether such Cohen Records exist (i.e., it has no idea whether it has records of its communications with its key witness); (ii) the NYAG will not even take a short amount of time to determine whether it possesses any Cohen Records, apparently because, in the NYAG’s mistaken view, discovery is over,” Trump’s attorneys wrote, the Post reported.
Trump’s legal team warns that the situation could grow more serious if those records are not preserved.
They say communications could be “automatically deleted and purged,” especially since James’ office has been “unwilling to take any steps to confirm whether such Cohen Records are being preserved.”
Trump’s attorneys summarized their concern in clear language.
“In sum, the NYAG is blocking any discovery into, and possibly even preservation of, evidence of the ‘pressured and coerced’ testimony that it used to convince the trial court to enter a wrongful judgment against Defendants,” Trump’s lawyers added.
At this point, neither Letitia James’ office nor Alvin Bragg’s office has issued a public response to requests for comment.
Remember, attorney Robert Costello, a former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, testified before Congress that when he represented Michael Cohen, he told Costello and other lawyers in the room that he didn’t have anything on Donald Trump. Maybe that’s because there was nothing on Trump.
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Doesn’t that make what Cohen is arguing now more credible?
The next phase may depend on whether those communications actually exist and whether a court orders their release. If those records do appear, they could reveal much more about how these cases against Trump were assembled behind the scenes.
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