The Atlantic

Will Michael Cohen Join the Ranks of Trump Turncoats?

The wave of former lieutenants working against the president is not unprecedented, but its timing is.
Source: Brendan McDermid / Reuters

Every president exhausts some aides’ loyalty eventually, but it usually doesn’t happen before his first midterm election. In his second summer in office, however, Donald Trump is facing a wave of defections—including tantalizing comments by Michael Cohen, a former Trump Organization lieutenant and attorney, that suggest he might cooperate with prosecutors.

“My wife, my daughter, and my son have my first loyalty and always will,” Cohen told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in a new interview conducted over the weekend. “I put family and country first.”

As Stephanopoulos noted in the interview, that’s a shift from previous comments Cohen has made about his allegiancessaying he’d “take a bullet” for Trump, or that he’d rather jump from a buildingCohen replied, “To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty.”

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