Ex-fixer for Trump hyperlinks Falwell’s endorsement in 2016 to suppression of racy images

By Aram Roston

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In his e-book launched at the moment, Michael Cohen, the previous fixer for U.S. President Donald Trump, ties for the primary time the 2016 presidential endorsement of Trump by American evangelical chief Jerry Falwell Jr to Cohen’s personal function in serving to to maintain racy “private” pictures of the Falwells from turning into public.

As Reuters reported final yr, the Falwells enlisted Cohen to maintain “a bunch of pictures, private pictures” from turning into public, Cohen stated in a recording, made surreptitiously by comic Tom Arnold. “I even have one of many images,” he stated, with out going into specifics. “It’s horrible.”

In “Disloyal: The Memoir,” Cohen describes pondering that his involvement within the Falwell picture matter can be a “catch and kill” — the apply of American tabloids to acquire after which suppress unfavorable tales about celebrities — “however on this case it was simply going to be kill.”

He later writes: “In good time, I might name on this favor, not for me, however for the Boss, at a vital second on his journey to the presidency.”

Cohen has stated that he helped persuade Falwell to endorse Trump simply earlier than Republican voters gathered in Iowa in February 2016 to appoint a presidential candidate. Falwell not solely publicly vouched for Trump’s Christian virtues but additionally barnstormed with the candidate. His backing of Trump — a twice-divorced candidate who had talked about grabbing girls’s genitals and engaged in extramarital affairs — was one of many main surprises of the 2016 marketing campaign.

Within the e-book, Cohen doesn’t explicitly say that the endorsement was the favor he sought in return for his assist in having saved the Falwell images from getting out. However his account marks the primary time he has linked the 2 points.

Earlier this yr, Cohen was quoted by CNN saying “there’s completely no connection between the images and my private request to the Falwells to help the Trump marketing campaign.” How that remark jibes with what he’s written in his e-book is unclear. Cohen didn’t instantly reply to efforts by Reuters to achieve him.

Neither Jerry nor Becki Falwell instantly responded to requests for remark. The White Home dismissed Cohen’s account.

“Michael Cohen is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress. He has misplaced all credibility, and it’s unsurprising to see his newest try to revenue off of lies,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany informed Reuters.

Cohen, who was convicted of marketing campaign finance violations and different crimes, is serving the rest of his three-year time period in dwelling confinement.

Falwell, who on the time of the 2016 endorsement ran Liberty College, stepped down as president of Liberty late final month after Reuters reported {that a} enterprise affiliate alleged a years-long affair with Jerry and Becki Falwell.

That affiliate, Giancarlo Granda, informed Reuters the connection concerned him having intercourse with Becki Falwell whereas Jerry Falwell watched. Jerry Falwell has denied involvement, saying the sexual relationship was between his spouse and Granda solely.

Falwell’s departure from Liberty marked a dramatic fall for some of the highly effective figures in America’s evangelical Christian motion. He was broadly credited with serving to persuade many Christians involved about Trump’s previous to simply accept him as a repentant sinner.

In his e-book, Cohen writes that he had change into near the Falwells in 2011, as soon as securing tickets for considered one of their daughters to see Justin Bieber carry out. He calls the Falwells “expensive pals, extra like household to me.”

However he additionally makes clear that, as within the smaller help in securing the Bieber tickets, he noticed the assistance he provided the Falwells within the picture matter as transactional — and enormously vital.

“Just like the Bieber favor a number of years earlier, this is able to have a big impact on the 2016 election, evangelicals, the Supreme Courtroom and the destiny of the nation,” Cohen writes.

“If Becki Falwell was seen half-naked by the scholars of Liberty College, not to mention evangelicals all around the nation, it will be an unmitigated catastrophe,” he writes.

After succeeding at preserving the images from being launched, Cohen writes that he “known as Becki and reassured her that the photographs wouldn’t get out, however I may hear the worry and disappointment in her voice. I reassured her I wouldn’t let her down, and I didn’t.”

“There it was: my second chit with the Falwells,” he writes. “In good time, I might name on this favor, not for me, however for the Boss, at a vital second on his journey to the presidency.”