Cohen wants to be a hero

“For months, every article written about Michael was calling him a thug, a moron, someone who was all mobbed up,” one friend of Cohen's told me. “Those words are mentioned millions and millions of times. He had tabloid guys heckling him at dinner with his family telling him he was going to jail, paparazzi yelling at him as he goes in and out of his hotel.” Earlier this week, however, a woman chased him down the street, shouting at him that he could be a hero if he cooperates with the government and brings President Trump down. Last week, another person attempted to get a message to Cohen, saying, “Please let him know that he could go down in history as the man that saved this country. I think his family would be so proud of him. Even people like me that were disgusted with the things we heard on those audio recordings, would totally forgive him.”

Cohen’s friends have been whispering encouragements, too, particularly after the president distanced himself from Cohen earlier this month by telling reporters that he “liked” Cohen, in the past tense. “He’s frustrated,” one person close to Cohen told me. “Washington is actively pushing him away as opposed to protecting him or welcoming him back in, when, at the same time, he has all these people telling him that he could change the course of the midterms, or 2020.”

Cohen has not yet met with federal prosecutors, according to three people familiar with the situation, and he has remained mostly quiet while the rest of the world speculates about what he has on the president, and whether or not he plans to use it. What is clear is that Cohen, after a year of scrutiny and mounting legal bills, is not the same man who once offered to be a human shield for the Trumps. “I have no one watching my back,” he has told friends. “I just did what I was told.”