Michael Cohen says he has dropped more than 20 pounds coping with the stress of former President Donald Trump's looming hush money trial, returning him to the weight he was when he left solitary confinement.
"I can tell you from a physical and a health standpoint, since this all started, I’m down 22 pounds," Cohen told Politico Friday. "I look horrible."
Cohen's interview comes just three days before the hush money trial — in which Trump stands accused of falsifying business records to silence adult film star Stormy Daniels — is slated to begin in Manhattan criminal court.
"It’s a heavy weight," Cohen said. "It is incredibly taxing on your heart, on your mind and on your soul."
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Politico interviewer Ryan Lizza noted Cohen will be "the key witness" whose testimony could send Trump to jail before the 2024 presidential election.
Then Lizza added, "You look great, by the way."
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Cohen disagreed. He reminded Lizza of the summer of 2020, when federal agents placed him in solitary just as he was planning to release a tell-all book about Trump.
"I’m at the same weight now that I was at when I was released from the 51 days of solitary confinement," Cohen said, "as a result of an unconstitutional remand against me."
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance charges and lying to congress, received a three-year sentence, was granted furlough at the height of the pandemic, then was yanked back to federal prison.
Cohen later tried to take his case to civil court, but a federal panel ruled Trump would not face repercussions for actions one Daily Beast reporter described as "the billionaire’s mob-like behavior."
Trump's former fixer then described the solitary confinement conditions in the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York.
"It’s not like you see in 'Shawshank Redemption' or any of those movies where you’re out in the yard and able to shoot hoops for an hour," Cohen said. "My cell was by far the worst of all. The window was broken. It was missing a piece of plate glass. When it would rain, it would rain in on me.
"The flies would come in. The sink was broken. The toilets were broken. The facility in and of itself was filthy," Cohen said. "That’s what solitary confinement was for me."
