President Donald Trump appeared on Michael Cohen’s radio program on 77 WABC-AM in New York on Thursday, marking the first public conversation between the former president and his former personal attorney in eight years. During the interview, which will air in full on Sunday, Trump praised Cohen for recanting previous statements made during legal proceedings. Cohen, who served three years in prison following a 2018 investigation, characterized the reunion as a decision to forgive past events.
The radio appearance follows years of legal and personal conflict between the two men. Cohen was a central witness in Trump's 2024 criminal hush-money trial, where his testimony contributed to Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts related to payments made to an adult film actor and a former Playboy model. However, Cohen has recently stated in public posts and media appearances that he felt pressured and coerced by prosecutors to provide testimony against the former president.
During the Thursday broadcast, Trump told Cohen that he had been "weaponized" by others. Cohen, who previously referred to Trump as a "master manipulator" in a 2020 memoir, told CNN shortly before the airtime that he had resubmitted an application for a presidential pardon to the White House. The application is a duplicate of one denied by the previous administration, with the names updated to reflect Trump’s current term. Cohen stated he intended to follow up on the status of the request on Friday.
For the broader legal system, this sets a precedent regarding the reliability of witness testimony in high-profile political trials. The shift in Cohen's stance from a "star witness" who testified that he acted at Trump's direction to a radio host claiming government duress complicates the ongoing legal narratives surrounding the 2024 hush-money conviction. Trump has already requested that courts overturn parts of a related civil fraud case, and these public statements may be used in future appeals or motions by Trump’s legal team to challenge the validity of prior judgments.
The concrete change for Cohen would be the potential restoration of rights or clemency through the pardon process, which he stated he would track via FedEx receipt starting Friday. For the public and the courts, the immediate impact is a change in the reported facts of the 2024 trial. What happens next depends on the White House response to the pardon application and the full airing of the interview on Sunday. A New York appeals court has already vacated a $550 million judgment in a related civil fraud case, though Trump is currently seeking to overturn the remaining portions of that ruling.