Michael Cohen spent years helping prosecutors make Donald Trump miserable. On Wednesday, Cohen was at the Republican convention in Dallas while President Donald Trump publicly entertained the possibility of granting him a pardon.
If Trump is trolling him, he couldn't have written the setup much better.
Cohen has submitted an application seeking clemency for the federal crimes that sent him to prison. Asked Wednesday whether he would consider it, Trump didn't close the door.
From Reuters:
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would consider a pardon for Michael Cohen, his former fixer whose testimony contributed to a 2024 conviction against Trump, but who has more recently said that he "felt pressured and coerced."
Asked by reporters on Wednesday whether he would consider a pardon for Cohen, who is seeking one, Trump said: "If everything is checking out, it's something I would consider."
"I appreciate that at least he came out, although late, he came out and rectified the situation," he said.
In 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison — and served more than a year — for a $130,000 hush payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election — as well as for other crimes, including cheating on his personal taxes and lying under oath to Congress.
Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 counts of falsification of business records to conceal the Daniels payment, in part due to Cohen's testimony. He has denied the encounter with Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, and is appealing the ruling.
There is something almost too perfect about the reversal. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, making false statements to a bank, and campaign finance violations. He separately pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison.
Years later, Cohen became a crucial prosecution witness in the New York case that produced Trump's 34 "felony" convictions in 2024.
Now Cohen has wandered back into Trump's gravitational field. Trump appeared on Cohen's radio program last month after years of mutual hostility, and Cohen was broadcasting from the Republican gathering in Dallas on Wednesday.
The man Trump once publicly called a "rat" is suddenly close enough to Republican politics to need a convention credential.
Trump has been enjoying another part of Cohen's transformation. Cohen wrote earlier this year that he "felt pressured and coerced" while dealing with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump seized on those words and announced Friday that Cohen had "fully RECANTED his testimony."
There is one problem with Trump's version. Cohen hasn't actually recanted his sworn testimony. He has repeatedly separated his complaints about prosecutorial pressure from the truthfulness of what he said under oath.
Asked whether his earlier testimony was untrue, Cohen has maintained that the information he provided was truthful and accurate.
Trump doesn't appear terribly bothered by the fine print. Politically, why would he be? Cohen has moved from attacking Trump to criticizing how prosecutors handled the cases. Every time Cohen discusses feeling pressured, Trump gets another opportunity to revisit prosecutions he has spent years calling politically motivated.
Then comes the pardon.
Trump doesn't have to grant one tomorrow. He doesn't even have to promise one. Merely considering it leaves Cohen in the remarkable position of waiting on an act of mercy from the man he once helped prosecutors convict.
There's the troll, if Trump intends one.
Cohen can appear at the convention, reconcile publicly, talk about forgiveness, and complain about prosecutors.
Trump still holds the pen.
Perhaps Trump eventually decides Cohen deserves clemency. Cohen served his federal sentence, and presidents have broad constitutional power to forgive federal crimes. A pardon wouldn't erase the strange history between them, nor would it prove Cohen's testimony against Trump was false.
For now, though, Trump gets something arguably more entertaining than revenge.
Michael Cohen came back.
And this time, Trump gets to decide how the story ends.
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