Letitia James made him do it. Alvin Bragg made him do it.
So says Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former attorney, in explaining that he was nothing more than a pawn in a game of power politics when New York state Democrats assembled civil fraud and “hush money” cases against Trump.
“From the time I first began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office in connection with their investigations of President Trump, and through the trials themselves, I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump,” Cohen wrote Friday on Substack.
Cohen wrote that the only reason he began cooperating with the New York authorities in 2019 was to reduce his prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal tax evasion and other charges.
He wrote that he was scheduled for release in November of 2021, but got out onto home confinement in September 2020 because of the COVID pandemic and his own good behavior.
At that point, he wrote, he was cooperating to get an early end to home confinement and supervised release.
But he also wrote that Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, and Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, had one-track minds.
‼️ Michael Cohen is now saying he was “coerced and pressured” by Alvin Bragg and Letitia James to stick to testimony that helped the government build cases and go after convictions against President Trump.
— Digital Gal (@DigitalGalX) January 17, 2026
Bragg won a conviction against Trump in May 2024 on 34 felony counts related to “hush money” payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. James won a $464 million civil judgment against Trump in February 2024 after accusing him of inflating the value of his holdings to obtain better loan terms. That judgment was tossed by an appeals court in 2025.
“During my time with prosecutors, both in preparation for and during the trials, it was clear they were interested only in testimony from me that would enable them to convict President Trump,” Cohen wrote of his experience with Bragg’s office.
“When my testimony was insufficient for a point the prosecution sought to make, prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative,” he wrote.
“I experienced a similar dynamic in the Attorney General’s civil case. Letitia James made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that, if elected, she would go after President Trump. Her office made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony that would help them do just that,” he wrote.
“Again, I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking,” he wrote.
“Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook,” Cohen wrote.
“Both used their platforms to elevate their profiles, to claim the mantle of the officials who ‘took down Trump.’ In doing so, they blurred the line between justice and politics; and in that blur, the credibility of both suffered,” Cohen wrote.
Cohen wrote that the “rush to secure a conviction can come at a cost to institutional credibility. I have seen how that rush manifests, how witnesses are leaned on, and how narratives are constructed to fit outcomes rather than the other way around.”
Cohen wrote that he “witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative.”
“When politics and prosecution become indistinguishable, public trust erodes; not just in individual cases, like mine and Trump’s, but in the system itself. That erosion serves no one, regardless of party, personality, or power.
The post drew a response from Trump.
“These horrible Radical Left people, doing everything possible to destroy our Country, should pay a big price for this! It was a SET UP from the beginning. New York Courts, with many fair and wonderful Judges, are embarrassed by what has happened! We cannot let this pass,” Trump wrote in a post published Friday to the Truth Social social media platform.
The New York Post reported Friday that it sought comment from James and Bragg on Cohen’s comments, but did not receive a reply.
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