Michael Cohen re-registers as a Democrat, lawyer says

President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen re-registered as a Democrat on Thursday, his attorney confirmed.

Lanny Davis, who has represented Cohen in his legal proceedings, wrote on Twitter that Cohen returning to the Democratic Party marked “another step in his journey … distancing himself from the values of the current Admin.” 

2-Today, @MichaelCohen212 returning to the #Democratic Party another step in his journey that began with the @ABC @GStephanopolous Cohen putting family and country first -distancing himself from the values of the current Admin – Can’t wait for his first interview! #StayTuned

— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) October 11, 2018

Cohen himself later retweeted Davis’s tweet. His change in party affiliation was first reported by Axios.

{mosads}The president’s longtime personal attorney was until June serving as the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) deputy finance chairman. He resigned after federal prosecutors began investigating him for bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance law violations.

The Washington Post noted that Cohen acknowledged during the 2016 presidential campaign that he was a registered Democrat at the time. He registered as a Republican before taking a leadership role with the RNC following Trump’s election.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to bank and tax fraud, as well as campaign finance law violations relating to payments to buy the silence of two women claiming they had affairs with Trump in 2006. Cohen told the court that he violated campaign finance laws at Trump’s direction.

While his plea deal did not include an agreement to cooperate with federal investigators, ABC reported last month that Cohen voluntarily agreed to sit for interviews with special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — where Cohen pleaded guilty — also attended some of the interviews.

In addition to the Mueller investigation, Cohen has reportedly cooperated with a separate investigation led by New York state investigators into the Trump Foundation, ABC reported.

Cohen’s cooperation could prove problematic for Trump, as the attorney worked with the president for years at the Trump Organization. 

The president has downplayed his relationship with Cohen following his former attorney’s guilty plea, and has sought to attack Cohen’s credibility.

Trump suggested after Cohen’s guilty plea implicated the president that the practice of “flipping” to cooperate with prosecutors “almost ought to be illegal.”