While writing a piece for The Daily Beast about Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana using "rape" to describe an incident between the couple while they were still married, writers Tim Mak and Brandy Zazrozny asked Michael Cohen, special counsel at The Trump Organization, for comment. And boy, did they get a comment.
"You're talking about the frontrunner for the GOP, presidential candidate, as well as private individual who never raped anybody," Cohen said, according to The Daily Beast. "And, of course, understand that by the very definition, you can't rape your spouse.... It is true," he added. "You cannot rape your spouse. And there's very clear case law." (This is not accurate: In New York, the marital rape exemption law was struck down in 1984.)
The allegations first appeared in the 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump, by Harry Hurt III. Hurt wrote that Ivana stated in a deposition from their divorce proceedings that after a fight caused by Donald having scalp-reduction surgery, things turned violent and she was raped. Before the book was published, Ivana released a statement saying that while she "felt violated" and did say during the deposition that he raped her, she did "not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense." Donald has denied the incident ever took place, and called Hurt "a guy without much talent.... He is a guy that is an unattractive guy who is a vindictive and jealous person."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Those words sound almost quaint compared to the diatribe Cohen apparently unleashed against Mak and Zazrozny. He threatened a lawsuit if the story was published, they recount, promising to "take you for every penny you still don't have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know. So I'm warning you, tread very f—ing lightly, because what I'm going to do to you is going to be f—ing disgusting. You understand me?" Cohen later reiterated the fact that he was ready to go to court, telling The Daily Beast: "You write a story that has Mr. Trump's name in it, with the word 'rape,' and I'm going to mess your life up...for as long as you're on this frickin' planet...you're going to have judgments against you, so much money, you'll never know how to get out from underneath it." So far, Cohen has yet to sue The Daily Beast or its reporters for every penny they still don't have.
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
