Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer, is under investigation for bank fraud in excess of $20 million and prosecutors are considering filing charges by the end of August, per a report in the New York Times.
Authorities are still looking into whether Cohen violated campaign finance laws for making hush money payments to women who alleged to have had affairs with Trump - he made a $130,000 nondisclosure payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election to ensure her silence - and whether he failed to report income from taxi businesses he and his family owned to the Internal Revenue Service.
Federal officials have zeroed in on more than $20 million in loans obtained by Cohen that he got through his taxi businesses, and whether he misrepresented his net worth to obtain said loans. The NYT report, though, said there was no indication that either bank that granted the loans suffered any losses as a result or that Cohen missed any payments.
The FBI in April raided Cohen’s offices, home and hotel room, and his relationship with the president has soured since. Cohen, who once famously said he would “take a bullet” for the president in July told ABC his first loyalty was to his own family.
Cohen, who may plead guilty rather than face an indictment, has hinted publicly that he is willing to tell prosecutors what he knows in exchange for leniency.
Details of the investigation come as Trump continues to seethe about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Lashing out at a NYT report that White House counsel Don McGahn had spent 30-plus hours talking to agents during voluntary interviews, Trump said the probe into his campaign's connections with Russia makes "Joseph McCarthy look like a baby."
“Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in a period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt,” tweeted Trump.
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