- Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen is releasing his memoir on Sept. 8, and teased a series of bombshell revelations about his former boss.
- Cohen claims in a forward released Thursday that Trump colluded with Russia, though not in the “sophisticated way” Trump critics have alleged.
- Cohen, who is serving a federal prison sentence, also refers to “golden showers in a sex club in Vegas.”
- Trump’s visit to a Las Vegas burlesque club in 2013 has been widely reported by others who describe the event differently.
Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer serving a federal prison sentence, released the forward to his forthcoming memoir Thursday, teasing a series of bombshell revelations about his former boss, including collusion with Russia and “golden showers in a sex club in Vegas.”
Cohen does not provide evidence to support either of the explosive allegations in the excerpt, though the memoir, “Disloyal: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump,” promises to be an account of mob-like corruption from “one of Trump’s bad guys.”
He describes his former boss as “a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man” who sought to win in business and politics at all costs.
“When Trump wanted to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin, via a secret back channel, I was tasked with making the connection in my Keystone Kop fashion,” Cohen writes in the forward.
“From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump’s clandestine lovers, I wasn’t just a witness to the president’s rise — I was an active and eager participant.”
The golden showers allegation is perhaps the most eye-catching claim that Cohen makes in the book excerpt, though he provides no details about the alleged incident.
It immediately harkens back to the allegation in the Steele dossier that the Kremlin had video of Trump in a Moscow hotel room in 2013 with prostitutes who urinated on each other. According to Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the dossier, the Russian government was blackmailing Trump with a so-called “pee tape.” (RELATED: Despite Red Flags, Chris Steele Believes The Trump ‘Pee Tape’ Might Exist)
No evidence has emerged supporting the claim, and Steele’s primary source, Igor Danchenko, told the FBI that he investigated the allegation and was unable to confirm that the incident occurred.
Steele, who investigated Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign, also accused Cohen of visiting Prague in August 2016 to meet with Kremlin officials to arrange payments to hackers.
Michael Cohen, personal lawyer for President-elect Donald Trump, gets into an elevator at Trump Tower, December 12, 2016 in New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Cohen has vehemently denied allegations against him in the dossier. He also told Congress last year that he did not believe a sex tape of Trump existed.
“I would also like to state I truly don’t believe that [a tape] exists,” he told the House Intelligence Committee on Feb. 28, 2019, well after he had flipped on his former boss. “I had spoken to many, many people who all claimed that they had this, and none of them turned out to be true. And, again, I do not believe that Mr. Trump was involved in this type of action.”
Cohen’s reference to Las Vegas matches up with reports about Trump’s visit to a club there in mid-June 2013 with Russian businessmen Aras and Emin Agalarov, who would later host Trump on his Moscow visit.
If that is the incident to which Cohen is referring, it would appear to be far less sinister than the private session with prostitutes that is described in the Steele dossier.
Rob Goldstone, who handled public relations for Emin Agalarov, has described a dinner in June 2013 with the Agalarovs, Trump, Cohen and others in Las Vegas to discuss preparations for the Miss Universe pageant to be held in Moscow.
According to Goldstone, who also attended, Trump went with the Agalarovs to a club called The Act, which he described as a “sexy burlesque version of Cirque du Soleil.”
“It was sexy, sultry, and indeed provocative,” Goldstone wrote in his book. “It was later written that some of the performers on stage simulated urinating onto the crowd as part of their performance. But no one did that particular ‘act’ at The Act that night, at least, to the best of my recollection.”
“At the club, Trump appeared to be having a great time and showed no signs of wanting to leave.”
It is unclear if Cohen went to the club with Trump and the Agalarovs. Goldstone told The Daily Caller News Foundation Friday that he is not certain whether Cohen joined the group, though he likely would have heard about the visit the next day.
“I don’t recall Cohen coming with us to the club, although he may have done,” Goldstone said, “but for sure he would no doubt have heard about it the next day as it was quite the club.”
Goldstone said that The Act was not “a sex club” as Cohen described it in his book forward.
“It was a piece of performance art wrapped around a nightclub setting.”
Cohen, who is planning to release the book on Sept. 8, wrote “Disloyal” while serving a three-year prison sentence on charges of tax fraud, money laundering, and making illegal campaign contributions. He is currently serving out the term under house arrest in Manhattan.
He pleaded guilty to illegally paying hush money to Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair that the porn star had with Trump in 2006. Cohen also pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s probe to lying to Congress about the extent of his negotiations on a failed project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Cohen began cooperating with federal investigators in July 2018, and has testified against Trump and others in the Trump Organization.
Cohen also asserts in the book forward that Trump “colluded with the Russians,” though “not in the sophisticated ways imagined by his detractors.”
“Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything — and I mean anything — to ‘win’ has always been his business model and way of life.”
Cohen has said before that he believes that Trump might have colluded with Russia, though he acknowledges he has no hard evidence to back up the allegation. His theories about collusion are far milder than the type of conspiracy described in the dossier or media reports.
“I have no direct evidence of collusion between Mr. Trump, the campaign, or Russia. What I stated was that there were suspicions, and I enumerated them,” Cohen told the House Intelligence Committee last year.
“I have no direct evidence of any information of coordination between then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump to interfere with or influence the 2016 primary or general election.”
Cohen listed off the incidents he witnessed which he believed constituted collusion. He claims he witnessed Trump speaking by phone in July 2016 with his longtime confidant Roger Stone about WikiLeaks. He also claims he was present when Donald Trump Jr. informed his father about an upcoming meeting with a group of Russians who had offered dirt on Hillary Clinton.
That meeting was arranged by the Agalarovs and attended by Goldstone. The participants have all said that no information about Clinton was exchanged, and that the meeting was a dud.
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