Michael Cohen, former ally who turned on Trump in hush money case, calls on president for pardon

Michael Cohen, who went from being President Trump’s fixer to one of his harshest critics, has called on the president to pardon him for a bevy of federal crimes, including tax and campaign violations.

Cohen joined four other Trump critics turned convicted felons – former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., former venture capitalist Michael Rothenberg, cardiologist Michael Jones and radio host Warren Ballentine – in an op-ed published Monday in The Hill.

In the op-ed, the five claim they were unfairly denied pardons by President Biden and urged Mr. Trump to take a second look at their cases.

“Each of us respectfully requests it of President Trump now, for ourselves and for all those Americans who will need mercy and forgiveness in the future,” the five men wrote. 

The White House will not confirm or deny any pardon requests. A spokesperson declined to comment. 

The quintet had each petitioned Mr. Biden for a pardon, but their request was denied. They wrote that Mr. Trump should take a second look at their requests because Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline may have played a role in the decision to reject their petitions. 

“Reports citing Biden’s struggles with memory lapses, confusion during public engagements and limited unscripted interactions have led to growing skepticism about his ability to make impartial, well-reasoned choices. If his cognitive decline influenced these pardons, then others denied pardons on similar grounds deserve reconsideration,” they wrote.

The group noted that Mr. Biden’s pardons of “close associates and family members raised serious ethical and legal concerns, particularly when others in similar situations were denied pardons.”

Mr. Biden issued a blanket pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of three federal gun crimes and pleaded guilty to failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. He also issued preemptive pardons for members of his family, COVID-19 response chief Anthony Fauci and the lawmakers on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2001, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The former president also commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people, including a woman who killed two of her ex-husbands and another lover, and a woman who stole $54 million from a small town in Illinois. 

Cohen’s plea for a pardon by Mr. Trump appears to be a long shot at best. 

Once Mr. Trump’s loyal attorney and fixer, Cohen flipped on the president after the FBI raided his home and office. The raids were part of the FBI’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep embarrassing stories about alleged affairs out of the media. 

Mr. Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in the investigation and said that if the payments violated the law, it was because Cohen bungled and was untrustworthy.

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax crimes, federal campaign violations and lying to Congress. He completed a three-year prison sentence in 2021. 

Cohen was one of the key witnesses against Mr. Trump last year when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged him with 34 counts of business fraud relating to the payments. A jury convicted Mr. Trump on all of the counts.

A few days before Mr. Trump was sworn in as president, a New York judge sentenced him to an unconditional discharge without prison, fines or probation, saying it was the “only lawful sentence” for someone who was about to take over the highest office in the country. 

All five of the authors have completed their sentences. Ballentine was convicted in 2013 of mortgage fraud; Rothenberg was convicted in 2023 on multiple money laundering and fraud charges; Jones was found guilty in 2017 of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud; and Jackson pleaded guilty in 2013 to conspiring to defraud his election campaign.