Michael Dean Cohen (born 1966/67) is an American attorney who works as a lawyer and spokesperson for U.S. President Donald Trump. Prior to this appointment he was Executive Vice-President of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Trump. Cohen also previously served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and a member of the board of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children's health charity. He joined the Trump Organization after having been a partner at Phillips Nizer.
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Early life and education
Cohen grew up on Long Island. His mother was a nurse, and his father, who survived the Holocaust, was a surgeon. He received his BA degree from American University and his J.D. degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, which, in 2017, was ranked the worst law school in the United States by Above the Law.
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Career
Cohen volunteered for the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, was a legislative intern for Congressman Joe Moakley, and voted for Barack Obama in 2008, though he later became disappointed with Obama. He also ran for New York City Council in 2003 as a Republican and briefly campaigned for a seat in the New York State Senate in 2010. He was a registered Democrat, until he officially registered as a Republican on March 9, 2017.
While an executive at the Trump Organization, Cohen was known as Trump's "pit bull." In late 2011, when Trump was publicly speculating about running for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, Cohen co-founded the website "Should Trump Run?" to draft Trump into entering the race.
A video of an interview of Cohen by CNN's Brianna Keilar went viral, in which Cohen said "Says who?" several times in response to Keilar's statement that Trump was behind in all of the polls.
Cohen defended Trump against charges of antisemitism.
The unverified Donald Trump-Russia dossier that was published in January 2017 said that Cohen had met with Russian officials in Prague in 2016; Cohen denied this.
In late January 2017, Cohen met with Ukrainian opposition politician Andrey Artemenko and Felix Sater at the Loews Regency in Manhattan to discuss a plan to lift sanctions against Russia. The proposed plan would require that Russian forces withdraw from eastern Ukraine and that Ukraine hold a referendum on whether Crimea should be "leased" to Russia for 50 or 100 years. Cohen was given a written proposal in a sealed envelope that he delivered to then-National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn in early February.
On April 3, 2017, Cohen was appointed a National Deputy Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
In May 2017, amidst expanding inquiries into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, two congressional panels asked Cohen to provide information about any communications he had with people connected to the Russian government.
He was a co-founder, along with Darrell C. Scott, of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump.
In October 2017, McClatchy DC reported that Cohen had sold four properties at above market values to unknown buyers. Experts on money laundering said that the sales raised red flags.
Personal life
Before joining the Trump Organization, he bought several homes in Trump's buildings.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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