Michael Cohen revealed that he went after people for Trump at least 500 times.
Michael Cohen on Wednesday revealed that Trump asked him to threaten people with lawsuits at least 500 times over the last 10 years.
Cohen made the revelation during a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, where Cohen was testifying under oath about his time working as Trump's personal attorney.
Trump is notorious for threatening to sue reporters and others when they report on very real things Trump has done. And since Cohen was Trump's lawyer, Cohen was often the one on the front lines making the threats of legal action.
For example, in 2015, when the Daily Beast reported that Trumps ex-wife Ivana Trump said she felt violated by Trump during sex, Cohen went on a long-winded rant against a reporter on the story, threatening him with ruining his life.
"I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we're in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don't have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know," Cohen said at the time. "So I'm warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?"
The threat didn't stop there.
"You write a story that has Mr. Trump's name in it, with the word 'rape,' and I'm going to mess your life up… for as long as you’re on this frickin' planet… you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it," Cohen told the reporter.
Cohen, however, says he now regrets his behavior while working for Trump.
And he told Republicans that they are now doing what he regrets: Protecting Trump.
"I can only warn people — the more people that follow Mr. Trump, as I did blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I'm suffering," Cohen said at the hearing.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
