President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said Friday that prosecutors in both the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office “pressured and coerced” him into delivering testimony tailored to securing convictions against Trump.

Cohen, who was a key prosecution witness in two New York cases against Trump, accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of pursuing evidence aimed at Trump, saying prosecutors were uninterested in testimony that didn’t fit their narrative.

“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 in a post on Substack.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Office of the New York State Attorney General and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for comment.

APPEALS COURT HANDS TRUMP LEGAL WIN, ORDERS REVIEW OF HUSH MONEY CASE OVER PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY

Cohen, who was Trump’s personal lawyer for many years, said he was writing as a federal appeals court considers the president’s request to move his hush money case to federal court for further review.

The former Trump fixer testified in a civil case brought by James’ office in 2023, where Trump was found liable for fraudulently inflating his assets to obtain favorable loan terms. He also took the stand in Bragg’s case in 2024, where Trump was ultimately found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Cohen accused both James and Bragg of using their high-profile cases to elevate their careers, claiming they sought credit as officials who “took down Trump.”

TRUMP FILES ‘POWERHOUSE’ APPEAL IN ‘POLITICALLY CHARGED’ MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY CASE

“They blurred the line between justice and politics; and in that blur, the credibility of both suffered,” he wrote.

Cohen said that both before and during the trials, prosecutors made it clear they were only interested in testimony from him that would convict Trump.

“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 said.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to several crimes, including tax evasion, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. He described cooperating with authorities while incarcerated, saying he sought sentence relief and felt compelled to provide testimony fitting prosecutors’ narratives with the hope that his sentence would be reduced.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“You may reasonably ask why I am speaking out now. The answer is simple. I have witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative,” Cohen said, while noting that he was not writing in defense of Trump.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Copley Square Tuesday for a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the second Trump administration.

“I think that issues are always going to come up and change, but our analysis is always pretty clear, which is like all of these different attacks,” Boston Democrats Socialists of America co-chair Bonnie Jin told Boston.com. “Whether it is the illegal intervention in Venezuela or the militarism that we have seen in our streets in Minnesota, it’s all connected to this attack on working people.”

Using the bitter cold weather as a motivator, organizers led protesters in a chant of “It’s cold out, but the struggle is hot.” The sub-freezing temperatures later became a tongue-in-cheek segue into chants of “F— ICE.”

Representatives from the Boston branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Boston Democratic Socialists of America, and the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network delivered speeches. Students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and Somerville High School who participated in the walkouts also spoke out.

“Whether it’s ICE terror in our communities, attacks on healthcare and SNAP, wars abroad, they think that using force and strength and bullying is going to beat us into submission,” Joe Tache, a PSL organizer, said in his speech. “It’s not going to happen because the truth is that is not strength; it’s cowardice masked as strength.”

Organized by the Boston PSL , the rally followed a nationwide series of walkouts earlier in the day. On the steps of the Boston Public Library, speakers condemned Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, and the strike on Venezuela and capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, by the US.

After hearing from the speakers, protesters marched through Boylston Street and around Boston Common while participating in chants that ranged from defiant (“We want justice, you say how? ICE out of Boston now”) to optimistic (“One year longer, one year stronger”).

Reflecting on how the United States has changed since Jan. 20, 2025 gave many protesters a fresh wave of anger and disgust. For protester Stephen Downey Jr., the one-year point of the second Trump administration was as good a time as any to declare that enough is enough.

“I’m tired of this fascist regime,” Downey Jr. told Boston.com. “I’m tired of this rapist and pedophile and 34 [time] convicted felon sitting in office, ruining everyone’s lives, taking everyone’s health care, and everyone just supporting it. It’s time for us to stand up now and make a choice before it’s too late.”

Sign up for the Today newsletter

Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.

Advertisement