Michael Cohen tried to get Uber to pay him by saying he's 'the president's lawyer' -- and still got rejected

Michael Cohen last year tried to strong-arm transportation company Uber into paying him cash -- but he still got rejected despite the fact that he told them he was President Donald Trump's personal attorney.

According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Cohen approached Uber last year and told them that "you need to hire me" because "I have the best relationship with the president on the outside."

However, the WSJ reports that Uber executives were wary of hiring Cohen, given his past and present work in the taxi industry.

"Mr. Cohen repeatedly pitched Uber, which said no, citing Mr. Cohen’s ownership of New York taxi medallions as a potential conflict of interest with the ride-hailing firm, a person close to the company said," the publication writes. "He modified his pitch in response to those objections, reminding the company he was 'the president’s lawyer,' this person said."

Despite this, however, Cohen was still rejected.

Even though Cohen couldn't persuade Uber, he was successful in getting both pharmaceutical company Novartis and telecom giant AT&T to give him money in exchange for access to the president -- and both companies have since acknowledged that paying Cohen anything was a massive mistake.