President Trump appeared on Michael Cohen’s radio show Thursday, his fixer-turned-enemy, in a surprising public meeting with the man who once called him a “cheetos-wearing cartoon villain” and testified against him both in court and before Congress. For Cohen, who served time in prison for his role in what he said was covering up Trump’s “dirty deeds,” it was the culmination of a behind-the-scenes détente that would have been impossible to imagine several years ago. The interview, part of which aired Thursday night on Cohen’s radio show on 77 WABC-AM in New York and will air in its entirety on Sunday, was an exceptionally friendly affair, with only a passing reference to the men’s tumultuous history. “You were used as a weapon in a way that no one has ever been, in a way that few have ever been,” Trump told Cohen. “I respect the fact that he retracted everything he said,” he continued. “That’s a very important thing you did.” In an interview with CNN shortly before the radio interview aired, Cohen said he had resubmitted a pardon request to the White House that had been denied by the previous administration, but had not yet received a response and planned to follow up on Friday. “I took that same application with the same documentation, and I simply rewrote the cover letter by removing President Joe Biden’s name and inserting President Donald Trump’s name,” Cohen said. “…I haven’t received an acknowledgment that they have the request, which is on my to-do list…I plan to call tomorrow to find out what happened because I sent it via FedEx, so I do have a receipt.” The truce with Cohen makes him the latest in a long line of Trump loyalists who have had public fights with the president but have fallen back in his favor. Other recent examples include Elon Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But the breakup with Cohen was perhaps the most personal. Cohen once boasted that he would “take a bullet” for the president and stood by Trump during his political rise. After their public breakup, Cohen’s testimony in Trump’s 2024 criminal hush money trial helped secure Trump’s criminal conviction just as he attempted to return to politics. Michael Cohen and President Trump in undated photos. CBS News Behind the reconciliation between Trump and Cohen, Cohen has since criticized prosecutors in the case, an admission that paved the way for their reconciliation. Cohen said he and the president had multiple conversations over the past year and introduced the interview by explaining his decision to move forward. “Forgiveness doesn’t mean amnesia. It doesn’t mean the past didn’t happen. It doesn’t mean that the scars fade, that the pain was false or that I’ve forgotten a single second of what happened, I haven’t. Forgiveness is not about erasing history,” he said. “It’s about having the courage to decide that yesterday will no longer dictate tomorrow.” He seemed nostalgic for a time when he was one of Trump’s most trusted aides, saying at one point, “Boss, remember when I was by your side?” The clip opened with the 1975 war song, “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” and closed with the lyrics, “Reunited and it feels so good,” from Peaches & Herb’s 1978 song. In a lengthy post in his online newsletter on Thursday promoting the interview, Cohen said that although his relationship with Trump became a “political blood sport,” there were 15 years of close friendship between them. “The good times don’t cease to exist because the bad times came later,” Cohen wrote. He simply said, “We forgive.” The president had not made warm public statements about Cohen before Thursday, but in a series of social media posts this year, he linked some of his former lawyer’s comments saying he felt pressured by prosecutors to testify against Trump in the criminal hush money case and in a civil fraud case. Trump-Cohen Split Highlights In 2024, Cohen was the star witness in Trump’s criminal hush money trial, which resulted in a conviction on 34 felony counts. He ended up receiving no punishment. But after days of questioning by prosecutors, followed by blunt cross-examination, Cohen placed the then-Republican candidate at the center of plans during the 2016 presidential election to quell accounts by an adult film actor and former Playboy model who said he had sexual encounters with Trump. Cohen testified that Trump promised to reimburse the lawyer for money Cohen advanced and that he was constantly briefed on behind-the-scenes efforts to bury stories that the campaign feared could be damaging. “What he was doing, he was doing at the direction and benefit of Mr. Trump,” Cohen testified. Cohen’s testimony at the time appeared to be the final break in a once-close relationship between the lawyer and his client that was dramatically tested in 2018 when FBI agents searched Cohen’s office, home and hotel room. Cohen later pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Russia, as well as campaign finance violations in which he implicated Trump in payments that went to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star, and Karen McDougal, the Playboy playmate. He was sentenced to three years in prison. “I really hope this man ends up in prison,” Cohen said at one point. “You better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to my family.” Trump and Cohen patch things up Since his trial testimony, however, Cohen has sung a different tune as he gets closer to Trump, insisting that he had testified under duress. “I felt pressured and obligated to provide only information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the case against President Trump and secure a conviction and convictions against him,” he wrote in a Substack post in January. Cohen testified before Congress in 2019, alleging that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to obtain favorable loan terms and tax benefits. He gave similar testimony in a 2023 civil fraud trial in New York, which found that Trump and his companies had committed fraud by exaggerating their wealth for decades. A New York appeals court later threw out a $550 million judgment against Trump in that case. Trump has asked a court to throw out the remaining parts of the case. In his tell-all 2020 memoir, “Disloyal: The True Story of President Donald J. Trump’s Former Personal Lawyer,” Cohen was unsparing, calling Trump a “captain of organized crime” and a “master manipulator.” But, foreshadowing their later rapprochement, Cohen also wrote that he still cared about Trump: “I had and still have a lot of affection for him.” More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
