Cohen also asked his Washington-based lawyer, Stephen Ryan, to make a similar inquiry, and Mr. Giuliani was noncommittal. Mr. Ryan had been working at the time with the president’s legal team to prevent prosecutors from reviewing materials seized in the F.B.I. raids that were protected by attorney-client privilege.
Michael D. Cohen, who once served as the president’s lawyer, testified in February that his former boss was a “con man.”. Credit... T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times. Michael D. Cohen was at a breaking point. He told friends he was suicidal. He insisted to lawyers he would never go to jail.
His bond with Mr. Trump all but broken, Mr. Cohen decided to cooperate with law enforcement officials. And so he traveled to Washington to meet on Aug. 7 with Mr. Mueller’s team for the first of many discussions.
A former personal injury lawyer, he began working for the company in 2007 after helping Trump win a fight with the board at his condominium tower near the United Nations.
Cohen pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations, including two counts related to hush-money payments made to women who said they had affairs with Trump.