Roy Cohn – who was the mob-connected personal attorney for Donald Trump when he was a New York real estate mogul — played a major influence in shaping the former president's relationship with the legal system. But one legal expert thinks Trump's adherence to Cohn's strategies could be his undoing.
According to an interview that former assistant U.S. Attorney James Zirin conducted with Slate's Andrea Bernstein, the ex-president is currently deploying Roy Cohn's playbook in his multiple ongoing criminal prosecutions. As an example, Zirin noted that one cornerstone of Cohn's philosophy was to try cases in the press, which Trump did on a daily basis during his Manhattan criminal trial. Even though a jury found the former president guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, he nonetheless politicized the result by fueling a narrative that he was the victim of a politically motivated "witch hunt."
Zirin noted that Trump's strategy in Manhattan in 2024 was almost the exact same one he used when he was accused of racially discriminating against tenants in his apartment buildings several decades ago. While several of Trump's confidants urged him to settle with the city in exchange for a "slap on the wrist," Cohn instead encouraged Trump to fight. Zirin explained that Trump "liked [Cohn's] advice" the most.
"These charges of 'witch hunt' that Trump hurls, he first used in the housing discrimination case," he said. "This is what Trump did in the criminal case in New York this spring — leaking stories to the right-wing press to create a public atmosphere that was hostile to the state of New York (the plaintiff in the case) and favorable to Trump."
"[I]n the New York case, he attacked the judge, even the judge’s daughter. He attacked members of the prosecution staff. According to Trump they were all left-wing Trump-haters, and the whole prosecution was being conducted for political purposes. There was the big lie that the prosecution was being directed by Joe Biden, even though it was a state prosecution, and even though the Justice Department had absolutely nothing to do with it," he continued. "It was just total nonsense, but people believe it."
Zirin opined that, while it has aided him in the past, Trump follows the Cohn playbook at his own peril. One of Cohn's axioms was: "No public man can indefinitely survive in the center of controversy." Zirin told Bernstein that, should the former president continue to place himself at the epicenter of political and cultural issues, it could be his undoing.
"The media built him up, and as we saw in the Roman colosseum, the thumbs-up can quickly turn to thumbs-down," he said. "The cult will break apart and people will go on with their lives."
READ MORE: Ex-prosecutor reveals 'key' moment from NY hearing signaling Trump's delay tactics at an end
The former president is currently due in court to be sentenced for his 34 felony convictions in two weeks on September 18. His attorneys have attempted to use the appeals process to push back the sentencing date, though those efforts have so far fallen flat.
Judge Juan Merchan could sentence Trump to as many as 20 years in prison. However, class E felonies do not require jail time, and Trump is a 78-year-old first-time offender. If he doesn't succeed in pushing back his sentence, it's likely the ex-president will be sentenced to a combination of home confinement, probation and fines.
Click here to read Bernstein's full interview with Zirin in Slate.
READ MORE: 'That's false': Trump caught lying about Afghanistan withdrawal to families of slain veterans