Michael Cohen says Trump’s ‘genuine empathy’ helped end their bitter feud

WASHINGTON, DC: Michael Cohen, the former attorney and legal fixer for President Donald Trump, said the president’s "genuine empathy" over the renewed scrutiny he faced helped break the ice between the former allies and begin ending their bitter feud.

Cohen said the shift began after a White House insider unexpectedly relayed Trump's empathy for the "hell" he was facing. The message opened the door to ending their long-running feud.

Trump's empathy breaks ice with Cohen

Cohen said on 77 WABC's ‘Cats & Cosby’ show released Tuesday, July 7, that the reconciliation began about half a year ago with an unexpected text from someone he described as a "White House friend and an insider."

The unnamed intermediary relayed a message from Trump as Cohen faced what he called another wave of intense scrutiny.

The person "expressed to me the president's genuine empathy for the hell that I was being dragged through, yet again, and I deeply appreciated that text," Cohen said.

That message marked a striking change after years of hostility between Trump and his former personal lawyer and fixer, who testified against him during his trial involving a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Trump called Cohen a "liar" at the time. Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records and denied having an affair with Daniels.

Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison over charges connected to the incident, including campaign finance violations, said he responded to the outreach by signaling that he wanted their long-running battle to end.

"I thanked him, expressed my sincere hope that this long exhausting feud between the two of us could finally end," Cohen said.

He added that the intermediary "replied almost immediately," agreeing that it was time for Cohen and Trump to meet.

Cohen says media onslaught changed relationship

Cohen tied the thaw to what he described as a "media onslaught" from the "left," saying Trump understood the experience of being targeted.

"The president knew exactly what it felt like to be at the center of that kind of partisan target practice, plain and simple," Cohen said.

According to Cohen, the sequence began with a Substack post he published in January.

In it, he said he "felt pressured and coerced" by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg "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 told CNN that the intermediary's message came after the Substack post, though he did not specify exactly when.

He said his own response to the outreach acknowledged the damage caused by their yearslong fight.

"I had put in the text: 'We both knew the cost of this war,' and in that moment, the ice between us, it didn't just melt, it broke, and that's how it all happened," Cohen said.

Cohen hopes for Trump White House meeting

Despite the thaw, Cohen's proposed meeting with Trump does not appear to have happened yet.

Asked by CNN whether the meeting had taken place, Cohen said he would seek Trump's permission and hopes "to return to the White House for a one-on-one visit in the next few weeks."

CNN said it reached out to the White House for Trump's side on the status of the relationship. Cohen, meanwhile, told the network Monday that the relationship is now "cordial and growing."