Democracy Dies in Darkness
Courts & Law

From the archives: The porn star, the checks and the president

The first criminal trial of a former president is based on a tawdry episode with a long, rippling tail of criminal consequence

By
March 21, 2023 at 2:40 p.m. EDT
President Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen showed on Feb. 27 a $35,000 check Trump personally signed "while he was president." (Video: Reuters)
14 min

Editor’s note: This story was published in March 2023, when Donald Trump was on the cusp of being indicted on the charges for which he is scheduled to stand trial starting April 15.

Donald Trump had been president for only a month when his longtime lawyer and confidant Michael Cohen paid him a visit in the Oval Office. As the president showed off the office’s historic paintings to an awestruck Cohen, he mentioned in passing another, less august, matter.