Michael Cohen - Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics

WHY WONT THE MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY hold Donald Trump responsible? Why wont anyone? Youve been told its my credibility. I call bullshit. Put me on the stand and let me loose.

No problem. Thats not the reason Donald isnt being held accountable. I propose that its because placing me on the witness stand will reignite a firestorm of media attention that will ultimately focus on the improper and illegal actions of members of the FBI, the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorneys Office, the former president, the Department of Justice, former Attorney General William Barr, and all of those who lied, manipulated, and cheated to get their win while deflecting from their own culpability.

Its 2022 and the fetid stench of the Trump administration lingers on even as the Manhattan district attorney backs out of charging him for the crimes we all know he committed. If we dont get it together and fix the problems of justice in this country, then we could be looking at the end of democracy.

We should all be worried about our government. Because if youre not, then what happened to me could happen to you.

For example, when you go to sleep at night, do you have nightmares about FBI agents raiding your home, searching your furniture, going through your closets, ripping through your clothesincluding your daughters underwear drawerand leaving with boxloads of your belongings?

Do you have nightmares about knocks at your doortwo dozen federal agents with guns standing in the hallway holding a warrant and demanding entry into your home for crimes you were falsely accused of committing?

Have you ever feared that the president of the United States wants you dead, wants to destroy you and your family, your reputation, and even your childrens future?

Do you break out in a cold sweat just thinking about those things?

I didntuntil it happened to me.

How would you like it if the craziest and most powerful person in the world spent his every waking narcissistic moment trying to use you to deflect from his dirty deeds. I once said Donald Trump wanted me dead. I now know he did everything he could to make that happen.

As you will see in these coming pages, that is not hyperbole.

That thought came to me as I sat sweltering in a hotbox in upstate New York, isolated and nearly forgotten. My family and closest friends refused to give up and tried desperately to save me before I suffered a stroke or a heart attack as they tried to secure my release from federal prison.

I thought about it as I watched government agents in the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice lie about me and force me back into prison once I was released.

Say hello to Bill Barr, I told the government agents as they rearrested me and forced me into handcuffs and shackles prior to shipping me back to the upstate prison from which Id just been released.

It should come as no surprise that reporters at the White House apparently knew I was going back before this all went down.

I realized five minutes after I met with Adam Pakula and his supervisor Enid Febus, two government officers, at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattanthe Federal Courthousethat something was awry. I was supposedly getting fitted for an ankle monitor so I could begin my in-home incarceration. Instead, I was to be sent back. The moment they handed me and my lawyer a two-page document which blatantly violated my First Amendment rights and demanded that I cease writing and publishing my first book, Disloyal, I recognized the fingerprints of the presidents newest chief fixer, Bill Barrbecause I had once been that guy.

However, the goal of this book is not to cry about my lot in life. I chose my own path when I sided with the slime of humanity. I know what I did and I continue to have nightmares about it to this day. Making amends for it is one of the driving forces of my life.

But, lets not forget: Im not the only one who worked for a scumbag. We seem to be rich with them in this country. If everyone who worked for a scumbag quit, thered be a lot more unemployed people in this country. And dont forget, I was never part of the Trump presidential circus. I didnt work for the campaign. I dealt with a petty tyrant who ran a small family company. He wasnt yet an international pestilence. And the bottom line is he fooled a lot more people than just me74 million, to be exact, who voted for Donald in 2020. He also didnt do it alone. Over the years, both the left and the right paid for his ride into the White House. Some of them clung to him when he got in trouble. He sacrificed otherslike mecausing many former allies to become enemies. Mitch McConnell is the sad sap who falls into all three categories.

The goal of this book is to open your eyes to the danger to the country when you have a deranged president who weaponizes the Department of Justice for his own benefit. If I have to smack you in the face to do it, so be it. After all, Trump isnt unique. I want to help us all change the government so the authoritarians dont ultimately win and destroy democracy.

Yes. I have suffered. And, yes, my family has suffered too.

But in pointing this out, Im trying to show you what can happen to youto everyone not in power or a friend of the powerful. We are in danger of losing this country to fascists who are destroying our democracy and the rule of law and replacing it with something unseen since the dark days in Europe prior to World War II. Donald Trump was just a practice run. If those who think like him are allowed to take control of this governmentlike they tried to do during the January 6 insurrectionthen were all fucked, and my suffering will become the nations suffering. As I helped create this Frankensteins monster and let it out of its cage, I feel it is my moral duty, or if you prefer my