“Someone of his character, he would rather go to jail than present information on Trump,” the friend told The News.
Michael Cohen would rather spend time behind bars than become a government informant and flip on President Trump, a friend of Cohen’s told the Daily News Friday.
Having known him for the past two decades, the longtime associate called Cohen a « bulldog » who would do anything to protect his client.
« Someone of his character, he would rather go to jail than present information on Trump, » the friend told The News.
The pal described Cohen as a man of many trades who never necessarily specialized in one area. « Sometimes you make mistakes when you work like that, » he said.
The prospect of Cohen serving hard time is proving more tangible by the day, especially if he’s prepared to refuse a plea deal, according to legal experts.
While he has not yet been charged with any crimes, the personal fixer and attorney to Trump faces a myriad of legal woes, including a criminal probe in New York that resulted in FBI raids at his Manhattan home, hotel room and office last month. Agents seized a cache of business records, electronic devices and correspondences, according to multiple reports.
The raids were the product of an investigation out of the Southern District of New York focusing on possible bank and wire fraud, in addition to potential campaign finance violations as it relates to a $130,000 payoff Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump in 2006, is separately suing Cohen in California over that hush payment, saying a nondisclosure agreement she signed about the tryst claims should be voided because Trump never signed it.
Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Illinois, who routinely prosecuted bank fraud cases, said the likelihood of Cohen being charged is very high, considering prosecutors already presented enough evidence for a federal judge to approve warrants for the high-profile raids.
« Usually when federal prosecutors charge someone they get them convicted, » Mariotti said, citing 2012 statistics from the Justice Department showing federal prosecutors secure convictions in 92% of their cases.
It’s impossible to estimate what sentence Cohen could face, since he has not been charged and most of the facts in his case remain sealed. But Mariotti noted that wire and bank fraud convictions alone carry maximum sentences of 30 years.
This week, Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, added to Cohen’s legal headache as he released a bombshell dossier revealing Cohen took millions of dollars from corporations with business before the government after the 2016 election. In many of those cases, Cohen sold his access to the president and, in at least one case, presented himself as a « lobbyist » — a fact that could open him up to lobbying law violations, according to reports.
Cohen’s friend conceded Cohen might have done some questionable things, but maintained he likely didn’t do it knowing he was breaking the law.
« Did he do something stupid? He probably did, » the longtime Cohen buddy told The News. « Did he do it knowing it could be illegal? No. »
