President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is done with being a "punching bag" and has hit a "reset button" on his relationship with Trump and media, his lawyer told The Washington Post.
In an interview posted Wednesday, Lanny Davis said Cohen — who is under investigation for possible campaign finance violations — no longer feels like he would "take a bullet" for Trump as he once famously declared.
"He had to hit a reset button," Davis told the Post. "He had to say he respected the FBI. He had to say he believed the intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the election.
"He had to describe the Trump Tower meeting as extremely poor judgment at best. And, ultimately, he said, 'I'm not going to be a punching bag anymore,' which he had been when he said, 'I'll take a bullet.'"
Investigators uncovered more than 100 recordings made by Cohen, the Post reported — including one obtained by CNN that contained a conversation between the two men discussing payments made to an ex-Playboy model who claims she had an affair with the president.
"Michael Cohen had the habit of using his phone to record conversations instead of taking notes," Davis told the Post. "He never intended to make use of the recordings and certainly didn't intend to be deceptive."
MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton, who recently met with Cohen, told the Post he has abandoned his former boss.
"He's totally turned on him," Sharpton told the Post. "It was clear to me in our conversation that Michael felt betrayed. He kept saying, 'I'm going to do what’s right for my country.' He clearly wanted me to know he was not Team Trump anymore."
"He was hurt, and the hurt has turned into bitterness. He said, 'Look at what I'm going through. Why me? Nobody is helping me,'" Sharpton added.
Cohen, whose home and offices were raided in April by federal investigators working on a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller's office, has not been charged with any crime, and denies any wrongdoing.
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