Trump’s Former “Fixer” and an Unprecedented Indictment

As the first-ever indictment of a former U.S. president unfolds, much is riding on one man: Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.

Cohen, who used to brag that he’d take a bullet for his boss, made the October 2016 “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels that’s believed to be at the heart of the historic New York state indictment of Trump. Daniels had threatened to reveal what she said was a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, who has denied the affair and said that the payment was not campaign-related.

FRONTLINE has reported in multiple documentaries on the role that Cohen played in Trump’s life and rise to power, from real estate mogul to reality TV star to president — including how Cohen worked to protect Trump’s image.

“Michael is very good at killing stories,” Sam Nunberg, a former Trump political adviser, told FRONTLINE in the 2018 documentary Trump’s Showdown. “He’s gotten Trump out of a lot of issues, I would say. And that was his job, and he’s done a good job out of it.”

In Trump’s Showdown and 2019’s The Mueller Investigation, FRONTLINE reported on how the FBI’s 2018 raid of Cohen’s office served as a sign that Trump’s personal life in New York was colliding with his presidency in Washington.

“Something clearly happens with the president after Michael Cohen comes under scrutiny from the Department of Justice,” Matthew Miller, director of the office of public affairs at the Department of Justice from 2009 to 2011, told FRONTLINE in the documentary. “[Trump] views that very much as a threat to him.”

In the documentaries, FRONTLINE examined how the targeting of Cohen by law enforcement risked exposing the work he did for Trump.

“It’s a whole other avenue of potential exposure, criminal exposure, to [then-President Trump],” Jack Goldsmith, a U.S. assistant attorney general from 2003-4, told FRONTLINE. “This was clearly someone who was a very close adviser and attorney to the president, and he was especially involved in what might be seen as the president’s shady business.”

No charges were filed against Trump during an earlier, federal investigation of the payment to Daniels. But Cohen ultimately cooperated with investigators and pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance charges related to payments to Daniels and Karen McDougal, another woman alleging an affair with Trump, which he has also denied. Separately in 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress about a prospective Trump Organization project in Moscow.

Cohen is apparently a star witness in the Manhattan investigation that has now resulted in Trump’s historic indictment, which remains sealed. Trump has said the investigation depends “on the testimony of a convicted felon, disbarred lawyer, with zero credibility,” has denied wrongdoing, and has called the indictment a witch hunt and “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history.” Cohen said in a statement after the indictment that “accountability matters and I stand by my testimony and the evidence I have provided” and told ABC News he was “absolutely” ready to be cross-examined.

The New York investigation that led to this week’s indictment is one of several ongoing criminal probes related to the former president that have been launched at the federal and state level. In investigations overseen by a special counsel, the U.S. Department of Justice is probing Trump’s role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and, separately, the handling of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate. Additionally, an investigation run by the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, has been examining whether Trump and others’ involvement in efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results merit criminal charges.

For more backstory on this moment, revisit FRONTLINE’s deep archive of coverage of Donald Trump’s campaign and his presidency, which ended with him refusing to concede his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden and his supporters’ Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump is currently running for president again, seeking the Republican nomination, and has said an indictment would not halt his bid.

Lies, Politics and Democracy

From Michael Kirk and his team, this September 2022 documentary investigates how Trump and other American political leaders fed the public lies about the 2020 presidential election and embraced rhetoric that led to political violence.

American Insurrection

An investigation of how the threat of far-right extremist groups evolved during Trump’s presidency, from the deadly 2017 white supremacist Charlottesville rally to the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. From a team led by Rick Rowley and A.C. Thompson, the documentary, updated in January 2022, is a collaboration with ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, with support from the WNET Group’s Exploring Hate initiative.

United States of Conspiracy

How trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House — aided by an alliance among Trump, his longtime advisor Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. From Michael Kirk and his team, the documentary was updated in January 2022.

Plot to Overturn the Election

An investigation of how the myth about widespread election fraud made its way to the center of American politics. From FRONTLINE and ProPublica, this March 2022 documentary by Samuel Black and A.C. Thompson traces how a handful of people had an outsized impact on the current U.S. crisis of democratic legitimacy.

Trump’s American Carnage

Made in the weeks following the attack on the Capitol, this January 2021 documentary from Michael Kirk and his team examines the road to January 6. The documentary investigates Trump’s siege on his enemies, the media and even the leaders of his own party, who for years ignored the warning signs of what was to come.

The Mueller Investigation

For two years, special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election dominated headlines. Drawing on interviews with U.S. officials, Trump advisers, legal experts and journalists, this 2019 documentary, an updated version of the 2018 documentary Trump’s Showdown, offers an inside look into the investigation that Trump deemed a “witch hunt,” and examines Trump’s battle against Mueller, the FBI and even his own attorney general.

Trump’s Takeover

In this April 2018 documentary, Michael Kirk and his team went inside President Trump’s high-stakes battle for control of the GOP, examining how Trump attacked fellow Republicans and used inflammatory rhetoric that rallied his base and further divided the country in his first year as president.

Trump’s Road to the White House

From January 2017, this documentary by Michael Kirk and his team examines how Donald Trump defied expectations to win the presidency in 2016.

The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden

Ahead of the 2020 election, FRONTLINE’s critically acclaimed series The Choice offered interwoven investigative biographies of both major-party candidates. This documentary from Michael Kirk and his team examines President Trump’s approach to power and how he responded in moments of crisis.

President Trump

Drawn from The Choice 2016, this 2017 documentary from Michael Kirk and his team offers an examination of key moments that shaped Donald Trump. Interviews with advisors, business associates and biographers reveal how Trump transformed himself from real estate developer to reality TV star to president.

These and hundreds of additional FRONTLINE documentaries are available to stream on our website, in the PBS Video App and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

– Chantelle Lee, Tow Journalism Fellow at FRONTLINE, contributed to this report.