Michael Cohen called Donald Trump “boss” during a friendly radio interview Thursday as he pursues a presidential pardon.
Cohen, 59, sat down with Trump, 79, for a 15-minute segment that aired Thursday night on his WABC-77 radio program in New York, according to the broadcast. The former personal attorney gushed about their past working relationship and suggested they hold a joint press conference to highlight Trump’s accomplishments.
“Boss, you remember when I was by your side? I literally used to analyze the polls,” Cohen said during the on-air conversation.
“Maybe what we should do is then have a press conference and literally put out all of the accomplishments,” Cohen suggested to the president.
Trump told Cohen during the interview that “I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said, and that’s a big thing that you did.”
Cohen is actively seeking a presidential pardon for his criminal convictions. He said host Jake Tapper in a promotional interview that he plans to call the Justice Department on Friday to check whether his application is being processed.
“I have not received an acknowledgement that they have the application, which is on my to-do list, which I intend to call tomorrow to find out what happened because I did send it by FedEx, so I do have a receipt,” Cohen said.
Cohen’s overture to Trump marks a dramatic reversal from years of scathing public criticism. After pleading guilty in 2018 to concealing $4 million in income from the IRS, lying to a bank to obtain a $500,000 loan, and a campaign finance violation for arranging $280,000 in hush money payments to two women during the 2016 election, Cohen spent years accusing Trump of being a “racist,” a “predator” and a “fraud.”
He later testified against Trump during Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution over the hush money payments, which resulted in Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in 2024.
Cohen began returning to Trump’s orbit as he aligned himself with the president’s claims that he had been subjected to a Democratic “witch hunt.” Earlier this year, Cohen said he felt “pressured and coerced” to act against Trump by Bragg and New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James.
“I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump,” Cohen wrote in a Substack post in January.
After those comments went viral and were addressed by Trump himself on Truth Social, the MeidasTouch Network ended its deal with Cohen. The progressive media network announced it would no longer produce or carry Cohen’s shows “Political Beatdown” or “Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen.”
“My podcasts and shows will continue, but they will no longer air on the network of three brothers I came to call my own,” Cohen said at the time. “That is not a phrase I use lightly. I mean it. Losing that partnership feels like losing family.”
In the viral moment that defined their years-long estrangement, Cohen had become one of Trump’s most visible antagonists following his 2018 guilty plea and cooperation with federal prosecutors. He testified before Congress, gave numerous television interviews, and launched his “Mea Culpa” podcast as a platform for criticizing the former president. His testimony in the Manhattan trial was central to Bragg’s case that Trump had falsified business records to cover up the hush money payments. The conviction made Trump the first former U.S. President found guilty of felony crimes, though the case was widely seen as legally novel and politically fraught.
Cohen said in his January Substack post that he was speaking out because he had “witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative.”
Cohen told Tapper that his pardon application had been sent by FedEx and that he intended to follow up with the Justice Department.
Trump’s willingness to entertain Cohen’s overtures comes as the president has made sweeping use of his pardon power for allies and has expressed interest in settling scores with prosecutors he views as politically motivated.
Cohen plans to call the Justice Department on Friday to follow up on his pardon application.