Michael Cohen, who served as Donald Trump’s personal attorney for more than a decade, is stepping down from his role as deputy finance chair for the Republican National Committee’s Finance Committee amid an ongoing federal investigation into his business dealings.
Cohen is widely rumored to be facing imminent arrest by prosecutors, who are investigating possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
According to ABC News, the attorney cited that investigation along with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in his resignation letter to RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.
“This important role requires the full time attention and dedication of each member. Given the ongoing Mueller and SDNY investigations, that simply is impossible for me to do,” he wrote, per ABC News.
An RNC official told HuffPost the chair has accepted Cohen’s resignation, noting that he has been inactive on the committee for several months. Cohen served the RNC for more than a year after his appointment to the Finance Committee was announced in April 2017.
The attorney also used the letter as an opportunity to critique a controversial Trump administration immigration policy allowing children to be separated from their parents at the border, ABC News reported. He told McDaniel: “As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart wrenching. While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips.”
In the past, Cohen boasted of his loyalty to the Trump family and Trump himself.
The attorney’s life has been upended, however, since the FBI raided his home, office and hotel room April 9, seizing more than 1 million documents.
He parted ways with his lawyers last week after they helped him review the seized documents. According to Vanity Fair, Cohen found a replacement in New York–based Guy Petrillo, who comes with experience in dealing with prosecutors for the Southern District of New York. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Cohen has grown frustrated with Trump over the president’s apparent refusal to foot his former attorney’s legal bills.
Speculation continues to swirl over whether the attorney will cooperate with prosecutors, potentially handing them information that could prove harmful to the president.