Michael Cohen not seeking pardon from Donald Trump, attorney Lanny Davis says

Michael Cohen is no longer seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump, Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis said Wednesday.

Trump’s former personal attorney and longtime confidante “has turned a corner in his life, and he’s now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone,” Davis said during an appearance Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Cohen’s decision not to seek a pardon suggests he may be cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice.

“Michael Cohen has made a turn,” Davis told Axios on Wednesday. “Michael is going to tell the truth to the powers that be, and let the chips fall where they may.”

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Cohen added Davis, who served as special counsel to then-President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, to his legal team earlier this month. On Tuesday, Cohen released a secret recording to CNN of his conversation with Trump regarding a payment to silence Playboy model Karen McDougal about an alleged affair.

The existence of the tape was first reported Friday by The New York Times. Court filings later revealed that prosecutors had obtained a total of 12 audio files during an FBI raid on Cohen’s offices and hotel room in April.

Davis told Axios that Cohen is sending a message with the tape’s release: “I am no longer the previous Michael Cohen that you knew — taking a bullet for Donald Trump, saying anything to defend him, being a good soldier. ... That is over.”

Trump responded to the tape’s release Wednesday, tweeting that Cohen’s decision to tape some clients was “so sad.”

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s current attorney, told Fox News on Tuesday that there was no “indication of any crime being committed on this tape,” though didn’t address why the Trump campaign had previously denied having any knowledge of the McDougal payment.

Davis suggested Wednesday that more of Cohen’s secret recordings could be released.

“I’m not saying there are more tapes as telling as [this] one,” he told Axios. “But there are more tapes.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

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