Friday, 1 June 2018

Audiotapes of Michael Cohen threatening journalist released

In July 2015, cartoonish thug lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Daily Beast journalist, Tim Mak, for working on a story about Donald Trump allegedly raping one of his wives.

From NPR:

"I’m going to mess your life up, for the rest, for as long as you’re on this friggin’ planet,” Cohen screamed at Mak over the phone. Yesterday, Mak released the recording of Cohen's unhinged hissy fit, which lasted seven minutes.

"Mark my words for it, I will make sure that you and I meet one day over 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. "Do not even think about going where I know you're planning on going. And that's my warning for the day."

"Michael, besides the warning, do you have a substantive comment that I can include in the piece that reflects your views on this?" I responded.

"I have no views because there's no story," Cohen said.

The legal threats continued.

"So I'm warning you, tread very f***ing lightly because what I'm going to do to you is going to be f***ing disgusting. Do you understand me? Don't think you can hide behind your pen because it's not going to happen," Cohen said. "I'm more than happy to discuss it with your attorney and with your legal counsel because motherf***** you're going to need it."

He also talked about past lawsuits, like one against Univision. The Spanish-language network dropped Trump's Miss USA pageant because of his disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants when he launched his presidential bid in 2015.

"I think you should go ahead and write the story that you plan on writing; I think you should do it because I think you're an idiot, all right, and I think your paper is a joke," Cohen said. "And it's going to be my absolute pleasure to serve you with a $500 million lawsuit like ... I did to Univision."

Image: A Katz/Shutterstock