Trump and the Fixer Who Helped Convict Him Just 'Buried the Hatchet' on the Radio, and Cohen Wants a Pardon

President Trump sat down for a radio interview this week with Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer whose testimony helped convict him on 34 felony counts. The tone, according to every outlet that covered it, was warm, cooperative, and almost entirely free of their years of public warfare — and Cohen has separately confirmed he's asked Trump's White House for a pardon.

The interview was taped on August 21. Part of it aired that Thursday evening on Cohen's program on 77 WABC-AM in New York, with the full roughly 38-minute conversation airing Sunday, August 23, on Cohen's show "When You Know, You Know," according to The Hill, CBS News and Talkers. Trump praised the economy during his second term, claimed he'd "win by 25 points" if running today, and discussed his White House ballroom project. CNN reported that Cohen described the relationship as being "resuscitated."

Cohen was Trump's personal attorney and self-described fixer for roughly 15 years, until FBI agents raided his office, home and hotel room in 2018. He later pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and lying to Congress about a Trump Tower Moscow project, and served time in prison. In 2024, he was the star witness in Trump's Manhattan hush money criminal trial, testifying about payments made to suppress stories about alleged affairs, testimony that contributed to Trump's 34-count felony conviction. According to NBC News, the reconciliation traces back roughly six months, when Trump texted Cohen to express sympathy for what he'd been through; Cohen said Trump replied almost immediately and suggested it was "time for us to meet."

In the interview, Trump told Cohen: "They weaponized you like nobody's ever been weaponized," and praised him for what Trump called recanting "everything you said." That's Trump's characterization, not a description of what Cohen has actually said on the record. In a Substack post from January, Cohen wrote that he "felt pressured and coerced 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" — a claim about prosecutorial pressure, not a formal withdrawal of his underlying testimony. Separately, CBS News reported that Cohen has resubmitted a pardon application to the White House, reusing paperwork from an earlier request that was denied during the Biden administration; Cohen said he has delivery confirmation for the filing but had not received any acknowledgment as of the interview.

Whether this is a genuine personal reconciliation or a relationship being repaired with a pending pardon decision in the background is, for now, a matter of interpretation rather than established fact. No pardon has been granted, and IF Daily has not independently confirmed the White House has responded to Cohen's application. What's confirmed is the interview itself, its friendly tone, and that both men have publicly described their relationship as mended after years of open hostility.