President Trump told reporters Friday he would consider granting a presidential pardon to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, a dramatic turn after Cohen served as the star witness in the 2024 New York hush money trial that resulted in Trump's conviction.
Trump made the remarks before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Dallas. He criticized the legal system's treatment of Cohen and said Cohen had been coerced into giving testimony he did not believe.
"It was illegal what they did," Trump said. "What they put him through was incredible." He added that if "everything is checking out, it's something I would consider." The comment marks the clearest signal yet that the president may use his pardon power to benefit the man who once turned on him in a Manhattan courtroom, and who has since worked to reconcile with him.
Cohen, who admitted in court during the 2024 trial to facilitating hush money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election, has spent months rebuilding his relationship with Trump. The Hill reported that Cohen told CNN in August he had submitted a written pardon application to the White House but had not spoken directly to Trump about it.
The rapprochement between Trump and his former attorney has unfolded in public view. In July, Cohen told John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby on WABC's "Cats & Cosby" radio show that he had received a text from Trump roughly six months earlier. Trump later appeared as a guest on Cohen's own WABC radio show last month, a scene that would have been unthinkable during the 2024 trial, when Cohen was the prosecution's central witness.
Cohen has said he felt pressured by prosecutors to testify against Trump. That claim sits at the center of Trump's argument for clemency. The reconciliation between the two men has accelerated in recent months, with Cohen publicly blaming the political left for driving a wedge between them.
The pardon discussion did not begin Friday. Last week, Trump posted on Truth Social that Cohen had "fully RECANTED his testimony" and had been "'pressured' and 'coerced' to say things that were not true."
Trump went further, tying Cohen's situation to his broader grievance about politically motivated prosecutions:
"I would like to thank Michael for having the Wisdom and Courage to step forward and do the right thing! His Act of Bravery is a Great Credit to the Justice System in New York City and State. I am sure it was not easy for him! Now we are asking that any remnant of those Politically Weaponized Cases against me be immediately terminated and dismissed."
That language, linking a potential Cohen pardon to the broader demand that cases against Trump himself be dropped, frames the pardon consideration as part of a larger effort to unwind what the president calls the weaponization of the justice system. Trump has pursued that argument through multiple legal channels, including repeated bids to move his New York conviction to federal court.
Trump's characterization of Cohen's actions as a full recantation requires scrutiny. Cohen has not recanted his testimony, though he and Trump have made peace. The distinction matters. A formal recantation would mean Cohen withdrew his sworn statements under oath. What has happened instead is that Cohen has said he felt pressured, a claim about the conditions of his testimony, not a retraction of its substance.
Before boarding Air Force One on Friday, Trump framed the issue in personal terms rather than legal ones:
"What they did to Michael Cohen was a disgrace. They forced him to say things that he didn't want to say and that he didn't believe. And I appreciate that at least he came out, although late, he came out and rectified the situation."
Whether "everything is checking out", Trump's stated condition for moving forward, refers to a formal review process, a legal analysis, or simply a political judgment remains unclear. The White House has not confirmed receipt of Cohen's written pardon application.
Presidential pardons have become a politically charged flashpoint in recent years. The controversy surrounding Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter raised sharp questions about the boundaries of executive clemency, and those questions do not disappear when the party in power changes.
The arc of Cohen's journey is worth tracing. In 2024, he sat in a Manhattan courtroom and admitted to arranging payments to Daniels, testimony that helped prosecutors secure a conviction against Trump. Cohen was, at that point, the man the political left had embraced as a courageous truth-teller willing to turn on a powerful former boss.
Now Cohen is seeking a pardon from the man he testified against, and Trump is publicly praising his "Wisdom and Courage" for walking back the circumstances of that testimony. Cohen has not spoken directly to Trump about the pardon, relying instead on a written application and the gradual, public thaw between them, radio appearances, social media posts, and intermediaries.
On the WABC radio show last month, Trump told Cohen the government had been "weaponized" against him. "There were plenty of others too, and it's a disgrace," Trump said. He added: "I think it's so amazing that you came out, and you told the story, and people respect you for doing it." The tone was conciliatory, a sharp departure from the years when Trump publicly attacked Cohen as disloyal.
The broader debate over how presidents use the pardon power, and whether it serves justice or politics, is not new. Governors face similar scrutiny; Minnesota's pardon board drew fierce criticism for clearing a convicted offender facing deportation. Executive clemency invites hard questions regardless of party.
No timeline has been set for a decision on Cohen's application. Trump's language, "if everything is checking out", leaves room to grant the pardon, delay it, or quietly let it fade. What is clear is that the president wants the public to see Cohen's shift as validation: proof that the 2024 prosecution was politically motivated and that even the prosecution's own star witness now says he was squeezed.
If Trump does pardon Cohen, it will not erase the New York conviction. A presidential pardon covers federal offenses, and the hush money case was a state prosecution. But the political message would land all the same, a president declaring, in the most concrete terms available, that the case against him was built on coerced testimony and deserves to be dismantled.
When the prosecution's star witness ends up asking the defendant for mercy, the case tells its own story.
