Reporter Says She ‘Was Completely Flabbergasted’ When Michael Cohen Told Her He Could Get Back on Trump’s ‘Good Side’

Independent journalist Tara Palmeri said Michael Cohen is angling for a pardon from President Donald Trump, and told her he could get back in Trump’s good graces.

During Trump’s first term, Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, turned against his former boss. Cohen gave unflattering testimony about Trump to Congress and later testified against his former client in the New York hush money trial, where Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments. The ex-bagman also did time in federal prison after being convicted of tax evasion, making false statements to a bank, and campaign finance violations.

In recent months, Cohen, who made countless media appearances blasting Trump, has made overtures to Trump, which seem to be paying off. That includes a friendly interview Trump gave to Cohen that aired on the latter’s radio show on Thursday.

A couple of hours later on CNN’s AC360, Anderson Cooper asked Palmeri for her reaction.

“Tara, as someone who regularly covers the president, I’m wondering what, if anything, stands out to you about this interview? the host asked.

“Well, they seem to be back to exactly where they were before,” Palmeri replied. “You heard the last word he said: ‘Boss.’ He’s already working for him, and he’s got another platform, WABC, in addition to his Substack following. He has a podcast. He has media. And that’s always been important to President Trump.”

Palmeri went on to explain that Cohen contacted her last year to ask for Trump’s phone number, and said that Cohen is clearly looking for a pardon for the aforementioned federal crimes:

Fourteen months ago in June, Michael Cohen reached out to me because he saw that I called the president, doing reporting. And he asked me for his number. And he said to me, “Tara, I know him better than anyone else. I think I can get back on his good side.”

And I was completely flabbergasted. I was like, “What is going on here?” And obviously it was about a pardon. It’s always been about a pardon for him, right? I mean, he was angry at Biden for not giving him a pardon. He said before Biden left office, “I’m somebody’s son, too,” because he was angry that he pardoned Hunter.

But I was just like, he can get the number from anyone else. And there are a lot of journalists and other people had it, so I just gave it to him. But I didn’t expect much from it. But then, you know, a few months later, I saw him on MS NOW defending President Trump on Jeffrey Epstein, like, emphatically in the way he almost did as a fixer, saying, “I know Trump, I know Trump. If he says he wasn’t on the plane, he wasn’t on the plane. I just know that.”

And so I asked him on my show, and I asked him a bunch of questions about Jeffrey Epstein when he was a fixer, and some of the lawsuits that came forward that were connected to Jeffrey Epstein about it. And he snapped at me. And he was incredibly defensive.

Palmeri later concluded of Cohen, “He was playing the role as fixer, and he ended that with ‘boss.’ He’s back exactly where he started.”

Watch above via CNN.

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