During the 2016 campaign season, Michael Cohen was busy “fixing” a number of embarrassing situations involving Donald Trump, specifically he was paying off several women who’d had extramarital affairs with Donald Trump. One of those women was Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a Stormy Daniels), who received a $130,000 hush money settlement from Donald Trump through an LLC Cohen created to hide the payments. The LLC was aptly named “Essential Consultants.” Unfortunately, candidate Trump wasn’t reimbursing Cohen upfront for these expenses, so Cohen was left scrambling to come up with the hush money. Vox reported how Cohen used his home to gain access to $774,00.
In February 2016, Cohen increased the amount he could use on a bank credit line tied to his apartment at Trump Park Avenue in Manhattan by $245,000. He and his wife, Laura, opened a $500,000 home-equity credit line at First Republic Bank and weeks later closed out an old home-equity line for $255,000 with TD Bank, essentially doubling what he could borrow.
A few months earlier in November 2015, Cohen gained potential access to another $529,000 through a new $2 million mortgage he and his wife cosigned with her parents at Trump World Tower, also in New York. Cohen and his wife hadn’t signed prior mortgages on the property.
All that is to say that Cohen didn’t appear to have millions in cash lying around to hand out to Donald Trump’s accusers. Fast forward to April 2018 and somehow, someway, Michael Cohen closed on a $6.7 million condo from a longtime friends of Donald Trump. From the Wall Street Journal:
Located at 111 Murray Street in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, the project is being developed by a partnership of real estate companies Fisher Brothers, Witkoff and New Valley. New Valley is headed by Howard Lorber, a real estate developer and longtime friend of Mr. Trump. Steve Witkoff, the founder of Witkoff, is also a longtime friend of Mr. Trump.
On the 19th floor, Mr. Cohen’s unit is about 2,697 square feet, with four bedrooms and 4½ bathrooms, according to listing website StreetEasy. It had been on the market for $7.475 million, according to the website. Amenities in the building include a Turkish bath, a private dining room, a 75-foot lap pool, a fitness center, an arcade and a concierge service that books private aircraft.
Cohen offered on the condo in November 2017, closed on it in April 2018. Pretty amazing for a guy who had to borrow against his old condo to pay off Trump’s accusers just one year prior, no? A lawyer who only had one client? Cohen, who is being investigated for money laundering, wasn’t able to borrow from a traditional bank, so he made a deal with Trump’s developer friends.
Mr. Cohen financed the purchase by securing a $3.5 million short-term mortgage from the developers, rather than getting financing from a bank, according to public records. While developers occasionally offer to finance purchases in their projects, such developer financing is unusual in Manhattan, real-estate attorneys say. People familiar with the deal said Mr. Cohen would have had trouble securing traditional financing because the unit did not yet meet the city’s legal requirements for occupancy.
Michael Cohen may be leaking to the media that he doesn’t anticipate getting a pardon, but he’s sure spending like he’s going to be living in that high rise condo, not a prison cell.