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Michael Cohen’s Anti-Trump Conversion was “Bulls***”

9 claims checked · Published September 2026 · Checked September 2026

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  1. Claim 1
    Accurate99% confidence▶ 0:00
    “with Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress to cover up details of a deal Trump had been trying to make with Moscow while he was running for president to build a Trump Tower”

    Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower Moscow deal pursued while Trump was running for president.

    Cohen pleaded guilty on November 29, 2018, to making false statements to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project. Mueller’s report says Trump and Cohen continued discussing the project during the 2016 campaign, at least through June 2016.

    Sources

  2. Claim 2
    Accurate50% confidence▶ 0:07
    “which we didn't know about at the time.”

    The public did not learn during the 2016 campaign that the Trump Organization was still pursuing the Moscow project.

    FactCheck.org reported that although the Trump Organization pursued the project during the campaign, the public did not learn about that campaign-period pursuit until a Washington Post report in August 2017.

    Sources

    • 1Cohen, Trump at Odds

      SupportsThe Trump Organization was actively pursuing a real estate project in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign, but the public didn’t learn about it until the Washington Post broke the story in August 2017 — about seven months into the Trump presidency.

  3. Claim 3
    Accurate50% confidence▶ 0:11
    “He's now seeking a pardon, clearly.”

    Michael Cohen was seeking a presidential pardon in August 2026.

    CBS/AP reported that Cohen had resubmitted a pardon application to the White House and planned to follow up after receiving no acknowledgment.

    Sources

  4. Claim 4
    Accurate50% confidence▶ 0:14
    “He was convicted.”

    Michael Cohen was convicted and sentenced to prison.

    Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple federal offenses and was sentenced to three years in prison, including a concurrent sentence for lying to Congress.

    Sources

  5. Claim 5
    Accurate50% confidence▶ 0:20
    “Now he's hosting Trump on his radio show. They claim to have made up. Trump is praising him.”

    Trump appeared on Michael Cohen’s radio show, and the two publicly presented their relationship as reconciled while Trump praised Cohen.

    CBS/AP reported that Trump appeared on Cohen’s radio program in a friendly reunion, that Cohen said they had forgiven each other, and that Trump praised Cohen for recanting his prior statements.

    Sources

  6. Claim 6
    Misleading50% confidence▶ 1:08
    “Trump did do when he he they put him in solitary confinement. When he was released, they put him back in jail.”

    Michael Cohen was returned to prison and spent time in solitary confinement after being released to home confinement.

    Cohen was returned to prison after being released to home confinement and spent 16 days in solitary confinement. However, the available court record does not establish that Trump personally ordered those actions; the direct attribution to Trump is therefore misleading.

    Omits: The statement attributes the imprisonment directly to Trump, but the documented events were carried out by government and prison officials, and an appeals court said Cohen could not hold Trump liable for the alleged retaliatory imprisonment.

    Sources

  7. Claim 7
    Accurate50% confidence▶ 1:41
    “he worked with Trump while Trump was running for president in 2016 to score a big Trump Tower deal in Moscow”

    Cohen worked with Trump during the 2016 campaign to pursue a major Trump Tower Moscow deal.

    The Mueller report states that Cohen pursued the Trump Tower Moscow project while reporting its status to candidate Trump, and that their discussions continued through at least June 2016.

    Sources

  8. Claim 8
    Misleading50% confidence▶ 1:46
    “that could only happen with Putin's approval.”

    The Moscow Trump Tower deal could happen only with Vladimir Putin’s approval.

    Messages and testimony show that intermediaries sought access to senior Russian officials and claimed that top-level approval was important. But the assertion that the project could only happen with Putin’s personal approval goes beyond what the official investigation established.

    Omits: The evidence documents efforts to obtain Russian-government contacts and support, but does not establish as a fact that Putin personally had to approve the project or that the deal could occur only with his approval.

    Sources

  9. Claim 9
    Accurate50% confidence▶ 1:56
    “So, while he's campaigning and saying nice things about Putin and claiming he has no ties to Russia.”

    During the campaign, Trump praised Putin while publicly claiming he had no ties or business dealings with Russia.

    Contemporaneous reporting documents Trump’s positive statements about Putin and his repeated claims that he had nothing to do with Russia or no jobs there during the 2016 campaign.

    Sources