Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Michael Cohen Defense Team Unraveling, Sources Say

Suggesting the imminence of a plea deal for embattled Trump attorney Michael Cohen, sources told ABC News and The Associated Press on Wednesday that Cohen’s attorneys are withdrawing their services.

MANHATTAN (CN) - Suggesting the imminence of a plea deal for embattled Trump attorney Michael Cohen, sources told ABC News and The Associated Press on Wednesday that Cohen’s attorneys are withdrawing their services.

Stephen Ryan and Todd Harrison of the Washington and New York firm McDermott, Will & Emery LLP have been representing Cohen since June 2017.

Though the FBI did not raid Cohen’s home, hotel room and office until this past April, Cohen reportedly tapped Ryan last year as the Russia probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller intensified.

News that Cohen’s attorneys are withdrawing broke this morning, two days before a deadline set by U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood to finish reviewing Cohen’s seized materials for attorney-client privilege designations.

At Cohen’s last hearing on May 30, Ryan told Wood his team was working around the clock and moving “heaven and earth” to get items to the court-appointed special master, Barbara Jones, who makes the final call on whether items are privileged.

As of last week Jones had found only 162 of 292,409 seized items off-limits in the case and overruled privilege assertions by Cohen, the Trump Organization and Trump in only three cases. If Cohen’s team does not complete its initial review by Friday, Wood said, the remaining documents would be turned over to a government “taint team” unconnected with the case.

Representatives for McDermott, Will & Emery did not return emails or phone calls seeking comment.

A representative at Ryan’s office said he was not taking any calls, but Ryan also has not responded to an email. Harrison did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

Months before federal prosecutors here confirmed that Cohen is the subject of a criminal investigation, former Trump campaign staffer Rick Gates entered his guilty plea as part of the Mueller probe after his attorneys withdrew from the case.

The investigation of Cohen stems in part from a payment the lawyer made in 2016 to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claims that she had a one-night stand with Donald Trump years earlier, before his run for president.

ABC News sources said that Cohen, now lacking legal representation in these proceedings, is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Michael Avenatti, a Los Angeles-based attorney for Daniels, tweeted Wednesday that the withdrawal of Ryan from Cohen’s case spells “disaster for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump.”

“I wonder how much Mr. Ryan and his colleagues at McDermott Will & Emery soaked Mr. Cohen for before they jumped ship,” another Avenatti tweet says. “I estimate $350k-$500k a week (not a typo). I guess that wasn’t enough to buy loyalty to their client when the going got tough. #Basta”

Categories / Criminal, Government, Politics, Trials

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...