Dear President Biden,
Please give Michael Cohen a full pardon. I ask you this because he has more than earned it. I base this claim on three reasons.
First, he has admitted the depths of his depravity after what I am sure was much painful soul searching. He did not hold back in blaming himself for his crimes in service to Donald Trump. This is from page 105 of “Disloyal: A Memoir”
But here’s the ugly truth—a motive I shared with deep and abiding regret and shame, and one only unearthed after much soul searching and reflection as I painted the walls in prison and stared at the ceiling from my bunk. The real real truth about why I wanted Trump to be president was because I wanted the power that he would bring to me. I wanted to be able to crush my enemies and rule the world. I know it sounds crazy, but look at what Trump is doing now: running the world, into the ground, but still, he literally rules. Underneath all the layers of delusion and wishful thinking and willful ignorance and stupidity, I was like Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings", lusting after the power that would come from possessing the White House—'my precious’—and I was more than willing to lie, cheat, and bully to win.
Second, he has been very vocal about the threat that Donald Trump poses to our democracy. And as a result, he has been subjected to constant harassment, and I have no doubt, more than an occasional death wish, or even death threats from frothing-at-the-mouth Trump supporters. Yet he has persisted in fighting for our democracy, even in the face of his heightened security risk.
And finally, Michael Cohen was an important witness for New York State in Trump’s civil fraud case. Here is what Judge Engoron wrote in his decision:
Although the animosity between the witness and the defendant is palpable, providing Cohen with an incentive to lie, the Court found his testimony credible, based on the relaxed manner in which he testified, the general plausibility of his statements, and, most importantly, the way his testimony was corroborated by other trial evidence. A less-forgiving factfinder might have concluded differently, might not have believed a single word of a convicted perjurer. This factfinder does not believe that pleading guilty to perjury means that you can never tell the truth. Michael Cohen told the truth.
If Michael Cohen hasn’t earned a pardon through his change in attitude and through his work, then I don’t know who does.
