Early Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump took to social media to demand the immediate dismissal of his New York criminal and civil cases. The late-night posts, published to Truth Social shortly after midnight, centered on recent statements from his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, who now claims prosecutors pressured him to give testimony that fit a specific narrative.
Cohen served as the central witness in two major New York investigations against the former president. The first was a civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, in which Cohen testified that Trump routinely inflated the values of his properties to secure favorable loan and business terms. He also took the stand in a criminal case led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, which relied heavily on Cohen’s account of hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors won both cases. A New York judge initially ordered Trump to pay more than $450 million in civil penalties, though that judgment was later reduced on appeal. In the criminal trial, a jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts related to the reimbursement of Cohen for the Daniels payment, making him the first former U.S. president convicted of a felony.
Trump is now pointing to a January Substack post written by Cohen as proof that the investigations lacked a solid legal foundation. In his early Tuesday posts, Trump declared himself “an innocent man who has been horribly treated” and called the prosecutions a “Political Charade.”
“When a Star Witness totally recants, and in every way reveals that he was pressured and coerced to give testimony, and when the Prosecutor admits that this Witness was the single reason that the case was brought, there was no other, how can that Case not be immediately dismissed?” Trump wrote.
Demanding swift action, the president argued that the law requires “the Perpetrators of the Radical Left Lawfare and Weaponization to be held criminally responsible for their terrible misdeeds.”
Trump’s demands stem directly from Cohen’s January article, where the former fixer claimed the legal teams were focused on building cases against Trump rather than looking at the evidence objectively.
“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 stated. He alleged that prosecutors “frequently asked inappropriate leading questions” during trial preparation and testimony if his answers didn’t support the narrative they were trying to establish.
Despite his harsh criticism of the prosecutors, Cohen made it clear in his post that he was not trying to clear his former boss.
“The purpose of this article is not to defend Donald Trump, nor to relitigate his conduct,” Cohen wrote. He explained that he decided to speak out because of his broader concerns about the justice system.
“I have witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative,” Cohen wrote, adding that when politics and prosecution blur together, it erodes public trust. “That erosion serves no one, regardless of party, personality, or power.”
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