CNN reports that Robert Costello, an attorney for former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen, told him that he could “sleep well” at night after his office was raided by the FBI last year because he had “friends in high places.”
Costello’s attempts to reassure Cohen came directly after he spoke with Rudy Giuliani, the attorney representing President Donald Trump.
In an interview with CNN, however, Costello insisted that Cohen had asked him to bring up the possibility of a pardon to Giuliani, and he denied that either Giuliani or Trump had “dangled” a pardon for him.
“Does dangled mean that [Cohen] raised it and I mentioned it to Giuliani, and Giuliani said the President is not going to discuss pardons with anybody?” Costello asked. “If that’s dangling it, that’s dangling it for about 15 seconds.”
However, a source who is described as having “knowledge of Cohen’s thinking” tells CNN that Cohen “disputes Costello’s version of events and insists it was Costello who was pushing his relationship with Giuliani.”
Additionally, a separate source described as “familiar with the emails” said that Trump’s legal team was trying to keep Cohen from flipping on the president and “hinting that a pardon could be in the mix at some point.”