Trump Claims Michael Cohen ‘Fully’ Recanted His Testimony, Which Cohen Recently Called ‘Truthful’

President Donald Trump claimed Friday that his former fixer Michael Cohen had recanted the testimony he gave in the New York hush money case, despite Cohen recently saying explicitly that his testimony was “truthful and accurate.”

Cohen was a central prosecution witness in Trump’s criminal trial, testifying about the $130,000 payment he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election and his subsequent reimbursement. Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records connected to those reimbursements.

The president, however, seized on Cohen’s claim, first made in a January Substack article, that he felt coerced by prosecutors pursuing cases against his former boss, casting it as an admission that Cohen “just fully RECANTED” his testimony.

“His Act of Bravery is a Great Credit to the Justice System in New York City and State,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I am sure it was not easy for him! Now we are asking that any remnant of those Politically Weaponized Cases against me be immediately terminated and dismissed.”

The president seemed to be taking the line from Cohen’s August 31 Substack article, in which he warned against “weaponizing the justice system” and defended his claim of having felt exploited for political purposes.

But, despite his claims, Cohen forcefully rejected the suggestion that his testimony was untruthful just months ago when Sirius XM host Dan Abrams put that question directly to him.

During a February 3 appearance on The Dan Abrams Show, Abrams, who is also the founder of Mediaite, read aloud from the January article in which Cohen wrote that “prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that support their narrative.” He pointed to New York AG Letitia James (D), who prosecuted a different case against Trump, as someone who had “made it publicly known during her 2018 campaign for attorney general that if elected, she would go after President Trump.”

Abrams asked Cohen whether his claim that he had felt “compelled and coerced” by prosecutors meant “that the testimony that you provided wasn’t truthful?”

“No. To the exact contrary,” Cohen responded. “As I stated, I felt pressured and coerced. That’s my personal feeling which I am certainly entitled to have. In no way, shape, or form should it connote that the information that I provided was anything but truthful and accurate.”

He later told Abrams that coverage of his January article had distorted what he actually wrote: “What happened is people read, unfortunately, headlines as opposed to the article itself. I specifically state that I am not here to defend Donald Trump. That is not the intention of the statement which I wrote or my Substack article.”

Trump recently appeared on Cohen’s radio show, and the two appear to be thawing their long, frosty relationship. Cohen’s podcast was dropped by the progressive MeidasTouch Network after he published his January article.

Watch above via YouTube.

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