President Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, burned an original full manuscript of his tell-all book on his time in the Trump campaign and White House while he was in prison, fearing that guards would take it from him, a Vanity Fair report revealed on Monday.
Before being transferred to solitary confinement after a fight with a fellow inmate in April, the disbarred lawyer was concerned that the guards would discover his 500-page manuscript and leak it to the media, the magazine revealed.
Cohen suggested that he was concerned about potential pro-Trump sentiment among prison staff and feared that it would be stolen and handed over to the president's allies.
After the transfer took place on the first night of Passover, Cohen incinerated the manuscript with a customary fire that had been provided to Jewish inmates to burn chametz - leavened foods prohibited during Passover.
The words have not been lost forever, however, as Cohen's wife has a backup copy on a thumb drive, the magazine claims. The book, “Disloyal,” is intended for release within weeks.
“I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them”, Cohen said in a foreword from the Trump book, posted online.
“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".
Cohen is currently involved in at least one legal battle with the Trump Organization, in which he claims he agreed to cover his legal fees throughout former special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecution of him.
Vanity Fair reported that a judge ruled on Thursday that Cohen can pursue the case. If given permission, the former attorney reportedly will seek depositions from the president’s eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, as well from Allen Weisselberg, Trump's accountant.
