Months after the FBI raided Michael Cohen’s office, hotel room, and home, the world has anxiously awaited to see how willing Cohen would be to lay his own life on the line for a wanna-be tyrant who would sooner shoot him than help him.
As of Tuesday, Michael Cohen has signaled to friends that he is “willing to give” investigators information on the president if that’s what they are looking for. He has also tapped a new lawyer to handle a possible federal indictment.
“He knows a lot of things about the President and he’s not averse to talking in the right situation,” one of Cohen’s New York friends who is in touch with him told CNN. “If they want information on Trump, he’s willing to give it.”
Cohen’s pick for legal representation is also no ambulance chaser. Guy Petrillo is a former chief of the criminal division of the US attorney’s office in Manhattan.
Petrillo is a well-respected former prosecutor who has ties to the same US attorney’s office that is investigating Cohen. He was an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1990 until 1997. While there he overlapped with Robert Khuzami, the deputy US attorney overseeing the Cohen raid.
The source told CNN that the paperwork and retainer might not yet be finalized, but plans are in the works.
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The shift to new legal counsel and indication of potential cooperation comes as the president has actively tried to distance himself from Cohen, leaving his once close ally and confidante feeling isolated. CNN had previously reported that Cohen had indicated a willingness to cooperate for the sake of his family.
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“He feels let down by him and isolated by him,” a second friend of Cohen’s told CNN.
Cohen had initially said he would “take a bullet” for Trump, and has become known as something of a “fixer” for the president. Cohen has been in the hot seat since the FBI raided his personal effects in relation to the $130,000 hush payment he helped facilitate between porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.
Since offering to take that bullet, Cohen’s family has shouldered much of the pressure which should be propped up by Trump himself. Cohen hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing, but if he chose to take the fall for Trump, he would be on the hook for the 3.7 million files, hundreds of encrypted messages, and 16 different cell phone recovered in the raid.
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