U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen is sticking his hand out and asking the public for help to pay his legal defense, and one anonymous donor has already ponied up $50,000.
Through his lawyer, Cohen has said that collecting contributions through a GoFundMe page, set up after his guilty plea this week, is the only way to ensure that the truth about the President comes out.
It’s also the latest sign that Cohen is broke.
He owes at least $1.4 million to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after pleading guilty on Tuesday to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and bank fraud, and has racked up millions of dollars in debt. Because of his plea, he is being forced to give up his New York City taxi medallions, which have shrunk in value as Uber and Lyft shake the industry.
‘Owes a lot of money’
“He’s without resources and owes a lot of money,” his lawyer, Lanny Davis, said in television interviews on Wednesday.
By Friday, the GoFundMe page, dubbed “Michael Cohen Truth Fund” had raised more than $149,000 from about 2,770 donations. Most reactions on social media was incredulous and unsympathetic, but one $5 donor was encouraging, writing — “The USA would love you for your honesty.”
Confusion over the web address for the page, michaelcohentruthfund.com, led someone to anonymously register a shorter version, michaelcohentruth.com, that redirects to Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign website.
