Cohen says he pleaded guilty to crimes he didn’t commit
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s prison-bound former lawyer told actor Tom Arnold last month that he pleaded guilty to some crimes he didn’t commit so his wife wouldn’t “get dragged into the mud of this crap.”
Michael Cohen told Arnold “they had me on campaign finance” for arranging hush-money payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, but denied committing tax evasion and called a crime related to a home equity line of credit “a lie.”
He also complained in the March 25 call that he felt abandoned and tossed aside — like “a man all alone” — after giving more than 100 hours of interviews and testimony to federal investigators and congressional committees.
Arnold said he recorded the 36-minute call without Cohen’s knowledge because Cohen was known to record conversations and that he wanted to remember what they discussed. Arnold provided a copy to The Wall Street Journal, which reported on it and posted audio excerpts on its website on Wednesday.