Trump's Former Fixer Is Now Earning More Than When He Worked With Him

Forbes

Lawyers in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Donald Trump in his first criminal trial, have long encouraged Michael Cohen to stay away from the press. They haven’t had much success. “The media attention was like catnip to him,” Mark Pomerantz, who once worked in the DA’s office, wrote in his inside account of his time. “We had no means of keeping him away from the cameras.”  It wasn’t only that Cohen, who had shadowed Trump for years, liked being in the limelight. Nor was it just that Cohen, whose life had been upended by Trump, wanted to humiliate his former boss. There was also money at stake–lots of it. In bashing Trump, Cohen has earned about $4.4 million over the last four years, averaging out to $1.1 million annually, or roughly double what his former boss paid him.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2024/05/24/michael-cohen-making-money-off-donald-trump/?sh=1e040a548aa9  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Wednesday, May 29.

00:05 Today on Forbes, here's how much Michael Cohen is making off Donald Trump.

00:12 Lawyers in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting Donald Trump

00:15 in his first criminal trial, have long encouraged Michael Cohen to stay away from the press.

00:21 They haven't had much success.

00:23 Mark Pomerantz, who once worked in the DA's office, wrote, quote, "The media attention

00:28 was like catnip to him.

00:30 We had no means of keeping him away from the cameras."

00:34 It wasn't only that Cohen, who had shadowed Trump for years, liked being in the limelight.

00:39 Nor was it just that Cohen, whose life had been upended by Trump, wanted to humiliate

00:44 his former boss.

00:46 There was also money at stake.

00:48 Lots of it.

00:49 In bashing Trump, Cohen has earned about $4.4 million over the last four years, averaging

00:55 out to $1.1 million annually, or roughly double what his former boss paid him.

01:01 First, he cashed in on books.

01:04 Cohen's Disloyal, a memoir, the true story of the former personal attorney to President

01:09 Donald J. Trump, came out in September 2020, two months before Americans took to the polls.

01:15 It became an immediate No. 1 New York Times bestseller, staying on the list for four weeks.

01:20 The book sold 290,400 print copies, according to Circana Bookscan, an industry data service.

01:28 Cohen testified that it had made him about $2 million in just the first few months after

01:32 it was released, and has gone on to bring in around another $1 million since.

01:38 Two years after publishing his first book, Cohen released Revenge, how Donald Trump weaponized

01:43 the Department of Justice against his critics, which spent one week on the bestseller list

01:48 and sold a more modest 24,400 print copies, according to Circana Bookscan.

01:54 Cohen disputed the sales figures when contacted by Forbes, but declined to answer other questions,

01:59 citing the ongoing trial.

02:01 In court, he testified that the book earned him "around $400,000."

02:06 The most impressive thing about the books?

02:09 How Cohen structured the deals surrounding them.

02:13 Cohen testified in Trump's civil fraud trial last fall that he did not receive an advance

02:17 for either book.

02:18 In 2020, the CEO of Skyhorse Publishing, which released Disloyal, told Publishers Weekly

02:25 that Cohen had a "non-traditional contract."

02:29 As a result, he appears to have earned far more than he would have with a standard book

02:32 deal.

02:35 Around the same time his first book was published, Cohen launched Mea Culpa, a profanity-laced

02:40 podcast in which Cohen interviews various people familiar with Trump, including journalists,

02:45 turning his press contacts into profitable content.

02:49 New episodes post twice a week, although the show has been on hiatus during the trial.

02:54 Cohen testified that Mea Culpa averages around 300,000 downloads a week and has been downloaded

03:00 a total of more than 10 million times.

03:02 It currently ranks among the top 80 most popular political podcasts in the United States on

03:07 Apple Podcasts, according to ChartTable, an analytics service owned by Spotify.

03:13 A second show, Political Beatdown, which Cohen co-hosts, debuted in February 2023.

03:20 It live-streams two episodes a week to YouTube, the audio of which is then pushed out to podcast

03:25 apps.

03:26 In all, Cohen testified that the two podcasts have generated about $1 million for him via

03:31 ads and merchandise.

03:33 One piece of merchandise, a T-shirt, even got a little bit of publicity during the trial,

03:38 when Trump's defense team noted that Cohen is hawking a T-shirt depicting Trump in an

03:42 orange jumpsuit behind bars.

03:46 Even when Cohen isn't making much money, though, he seems happy to get attention.

03:50 At the urging of his 20-something-year-old kids, Cohen joined TikTok around December

03:55 2020.

03:56 Like a true Gen Xer, he was slow to post at first.

03:59 But Cohen eventually got into it, streaming hour-long videos nightly around 10 p.m. for

04:04 anyone willing to shell out $5.99 a month.

04:08 Why?

04:09 He explained at trial, quote, "Build an audience to create a community, to really vent because

04:14 I am having a difficult time sleeping, so I found an outlet."

04:18 He also makes a little money from it.

04:20 According to TikTok, Cohen's so-called "community" consists of 309 subscribers, which would suggest

04:26 he is on pace to earn about $22,000 a year before TikTok takes any cut.

04:33 For full coverage, check out Zach Everson's piece on Forbes.com.

04:38 This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:41 Thanks for tuning in.

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04:52 (upbeat music)

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