Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has found himself at the center of the news cycle in recent days after the Department of Justice revealed it has been conducting an “ongoing criminal investigation” into him.
Cohen was under scrutiny even prior to the unsealing of the filing from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, highlighted by the coverage of an FBI raid of his New York City office, hotel room and residence. Some of Cohen’s more provocative tweets have been resurfacing as well.
In particular, there appears to be a trend of Cohen employing the hashtag “#fakenews” in his tweets. Not only has its use been controversial, but the information Cohen alleges to be “fake news” has turned out to be anything but in some cases.
The most prominent example is the possibility of Cohen’s involvement in a meeting with Russian operatives in Prague. The meeting in the Czech Republic was noted in the infamous Trump dossier written by Christopher Steele. McClatchy reported that Cohen visited Prague during the Trump campaign after Cohen vehemently denied ever visiting the city.
I have never been to Prague in my life. #fakenews pic.twitter.com/CMil9Rha3D
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 11, 2017
Cohen initially became a household name once details emerged that he had paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election. The payment allegedly came as hush money to prevent her from disclosing an affair with Trump that occurred years before he was a presidential candidate.
Cohen also reportedly paid off a Playboy model that had an affair with Republican National Committee fundraiser Elliott Broidy, who has since resigned from his position.
Another opportunity Cohen took to denounce the media came after the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee concluded its 14-month inquiry into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. With the GOP finding no evidence that then-candidate Trump colluded with Russia in the lead-up to the election, Cohen took the opportunity to blast mainstream outlets.
What’s wrong with the liberal #MSM? @CNN @RepSwalwell . They claim that the @HouseGOP Intel Committee “jumped the gun” on closing the investigation. FOURTEEN (14) months and NOTHING! #FakeNews #NoCollusion #apologize #Haters
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) March 13, 2018
The last instance in recent months of Cohen tweeting about #fakenews came from Juan Pablo Andrade, a policy advisor at the pro-Trump think tank America First Policies. Upon meeting Cohen, Andrade tweeted this picture and caption out, which Cohen retweeted.
There are not many people that are more loyal to @realDonaldTrump than @MichaelCohen212 – a shame that the #MSM #FakeNews is now targeting him! #Loyalty #Fixer #MAGA pic.twitter.com/EsRmvnmBAG
— Juan Pablo Andrade (@RealJuanPablo) March 10, 2018
Although the facts are still coming together concerning the extent of Cohen’s involvement with Trump during his presidential campaign, what’s certain is that his name won’t be fading from the spotlight anytime soon.
What’s worth watching, though, is whether Cohen will follow in his most prominent client’s footsteps and decry mainstream news outlets more frequently with #fakenews if they continue to unveil more unflattering information against him.