"Disloyal, A Memoir," the devastating tell-all book by Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former friend, fixer and personal lawyer, is a gruesome portrait of "the real real Donald Trump – the man very, very, very few people know."
Excerpts from the explosive book written by one of the "very, very, very few people" who know Trump inside and out reveal a picture of a morally bankrupt man willing to lie, cheat and break the law to attain his ends.
The 3,700-word foreword released Thursday by the book's publishers paints a horrific picture of Trump as a human being. Cohen knows of what he speaks, having been at the center of Trump's shady dealings for a decade.
On Dec. 12, 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty to one count of lying to Congress on Trump's behalf. He also pled guilty to five counts of tax evasion and campaign finance violations. He's carrying out the remainder of his prison sentence in home confinement.
Cohen bills his book as an intimate portrait of Trump. He contends there hasn't been a book like his because Trump "has a million acquaintances, pals and hangers on, but no real friends."
Trump had no one he trusts to keep his secrets except for Cohen. For 10 years, however, "Trump certainly had me, and I was always there for him, and look what happened to me," said Cohen.
"From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump's clandestine lovers, I wasn't just a witness to the president's rise – I was an active and eager participant."
Considering their closeness for a decade, it's hard not believing Cohen's take on Russia's interference in the 2016 election that propelled Trump to the presidency. Flat out, Cohen asserts Trump colluded with the Russians but not in the sophisticated ways imagined by his detractors.
"Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything – and I mean anything – to "win" has always been his business model and way of life."
Cohen affirms Trump's closeness with the Russians. He said Trump continued to pursue a major real estate deal in Moscow during the campaign.
Trump also sought to wiggle his way into "the world of President Vladimir Putin and his coterie of corrupt billionaire oligarchs. I know because I personally ran that deal and kept Trump and his children closely informed of all updates, even as the candidate blatantly lied to the American people saying, "there's no Russian collusion, I have no dealings with Russia ... there's no Russia."
