Michael Cohen previews tell-all Trump book, alleges Russia collusion, other sordid scandals

Michael Cohen is moving forward with his tell-all memoir about President Donald Trump, weeks after a judge ruled that his being sent back to prison was a retaliatory act over the book.

The former attorney and self-described fixer for the president announced on Twitter Thursday that his book, "Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump," is now available for pre-order online, where people can also read the book's foreword.

"The day has finally arrived," he wrote. "I have waited a long time to share my truth."

The memoir will be released Sept. 8 by Skyhorse Publishing. Cohen did not list a publisher for the book and, as of midday Thursday, it was not listed on Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com. Skyhorse has a history of taking on books by controversial public figures, including a memoir this spring by Woody Allen that had been dropped by Hachette Book Group.

"'Disloyal' is the most devastating business and political horror story of the century,” according to a Skyhorse statement shared with the the Associated Press. "It is a story that you haven’t read in newspapers, or on social media, or watched on television. These are accounts that only someone who worked for Trump around the clock for a decade — not a few months or even a couple of years — could know."

A hardcover copy costs $32.50 and a signed copy $40, according to the book's website.

White House representative Brian Morgenstern criticized the memoir in a statement to USA TODAY.

"Michael Cohen’s book is fan fiction," he said. "He readily admits to lying routinely but expects people to believe him now so that he can make money from book sales. It’s unfortunate that the media is exploiting this sad and desperate man to attack President Trump."

In the foreword, Cohen describes Trump as a "mob boss" who "wouldn’t mind if I was dead." He also recalls the events leading up to his testimony before the House Oversight Committee in 2019 and says he started writing the memoir "longhand on a yellow legal pad" from his upstate New York prison.

According to Cohen, his history with Trump gives him unique insight into how the president thinks.

"Trump’s theory of life, business and politics revolved around threats and the prospect of destruction—financial, electoral, personal, physical—as a weapon," he writes. "I knew how he worked because I had frequently been the one screaming threats on his behalf as Trump’s fixer and designated thug."

He also claims that Trump "wanted me gone before I could tell the nation what I know about him."

"I was exactly the person Trump was talking about when he said he could shoot and kill someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it," he adds.

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According to the lawyer, those who believe Trump is "a Russian-controlled fraud" and those who believe "the entire Russian scandal was a witch hunt" are both wrong. Rather, Cohen writes Trump did collude with Russia, "but not in the sophisticated ways imaged by his detractors."

"Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything—and I mean anything—to 'win' has always been his business model and way of life," he continued.

Cohen also previewed other scandals, including that he lied to first lady Melania Trump to cover up her husband's sexual infidelities and that Trump tasked him with creating a "secret back channel" for Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump’s clandestine lovers, I wasn’t just a witness to the president’s rise—I was an active and eager participant," he writes.

Cohen adds: "If you want to know how the mob really works, you’ve got to talk to the bad guys. I was one of Trump’s bad guys."

Cohen is completing the last two years of a three-year prison sentence at home after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress. Last month, Cohen was released to home confinement after a federal judge in New York found that he was sent back to prison as a retaliatory act over his decision to write a tell-all book about Trump.

"I cannot believe fairly that it was not in purpose ... to stop his exercise of First Amendment rights" to publish a book and discuss it on social media, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said at a hearing on July 23.

The judge ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release Cohen back to his family by afternoon the next day.

In a statement, Danya Perry, Cohen's attorney, said the judge's ruling confirms that the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons can't block Cohen from publishing a book about the president as a condition of his home confinement.

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"This principle transcends politics, and we are gratified that the rule of law prevails," Perry said.

The Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that assertions officials retaliated against Cohen were "patently false."

Cohen was furloughed to home confinement in May because of coronavirus fears in the federal prison system. He was sent back to prison in Otisville, N.Y. after he refused the conditions of his home confinement. Officials were finalizing Cohen's processing to home confinement as part of the U.S. Probation Office's Federal Location Monitoring program.

Michael Cohen was sent back to prison as a retaliatory act over tell-all book about Trump, federal judge rules

Lanny Davis, Cohen's legal adviser, said Cohen was meeting with authorities to go over final conditions of home confinement and to obtain an ankle bracelet monitor when he balked at a required provision that he not speak to the media or pursue a previously announced book project during the term of his sentence.

The media and book prohibitions, Davis said, were part of an eight-point list presented to Cohen. Davis said officials departed the meeting to discuss Cohen's disagreement, then U.S. marshals returned about an hour later, carrying shackles.

Cohen’s charges stemmed from his efforts to arrange payouts during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from speaking out about their alleged extramarital affairs with Trump, who has denied the affairs. He has said that Trump directed him to make the payments.

Contributing: Kristine Phillips, USA TODAY; Hillel Italie, Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michael Cohen previews tell-all memoir about alleged Trump scandals