Federal and state law enforcement officials examining President Trump’s family business and charitable foundation met with Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen on Wednesday, according to a new report.
Cohen and one of his lawyers, Guy Petrillo, met with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and officials from the New York Attorney General's office, CNN reports. Both offices are investigating dealings of the Trump Foundation and the Trump Organization.
It’s uncertain why Cohen, who worked for Trump for more than 10 years, met with the prosecutors. However, the once-strong relationship between Cohen and Trump has soured.
Cohen said last year that he would take a “bullet” for Trump, but since then has distanced himself from the president and has modified his party affiliation so that he is no longer a Republican, but rather a registered Democrat.
[More: Michael Cohen open to campaigning for Democrats]
One of his lawyers, Lanny Davis, said on Twitter the move was a way of “distancing himself from the values of the current Admin.”
In an interview with the Associated Press published Tuesday, Trump characterized Cohen as a “PR person who did small legal work.” He also claimed that Cohen provided a “totally false” testimony when he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations made at the direction of Trump.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts, including one count of willful cause of unlawful corporate contribution and one count of excessive campaign contribution. He is slated to be sentenced in December.
The campaign finance violations were due to payments Cohen made to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. They were paid per the direction of the “candidate” in exchange for their silence, Cohen told a judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in August.
Trump has denied that he had affairs with either woman.