A recently uncovered section from Ivana Trump’s 1993 biography claims that the socialite was raped by her then husband. Her then spouse was Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The piece was uncovered in an expose by the Daily Beast. Responding to the claims was Trump’s special counsel, Michael Cohen, who allegedly told the publication “by definition you can’t rape your spouse.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Cohen Threatened the Daily Beast With a $500 Million Lawsuit
(Getty)
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Cohen said:
You’re talking about the front-runner for the GOP, presidential candidate, as well as private individual who never raped anybody…And of course, understand that by the very definition, you can’t rape your spouse…
I think you should go ahead and you should write the story that you plan on writing. I think you should do it. Because I think you’re an idiot. And I think your paper’s a joke, and it’s going to be my absolute pleasure to serve you with a $500 million lawsuit, like I told [you] I did it to Univision.
In her biography, Ivana Trump said that Trump violated her in 1989. The Donald has previously denied these claims. His campaign put out a statement as the Daily Beast story began to spread virally:
This is an event that has been widely reported on in the past, it is old news and it never happened. It is a standard lawyer technique, which was used to exploit more money from Mr. Trump especially since he had an ironclad prenuptial agreement. It is just a way for the badly failing and money losing Daily Beast, which has been reporting inaccurately on Mr. Trump for years, to get some publicity for itself.
After her biography was published, Ivana Trump clarified her remarks about “rape” saying that she felt violated and didn’t mean the term “rape” in the criminal sense. Later, Cohen issued an apology statement to CNN:
As an attorney, husband and father there are many injustices that offend me but nothing more than charges of rape or racism. They hit me at my core. Rarely am I surprised by the press, but the gall of this particular reporter to make such a reprehensible and false allegation against Mr. Trump truly stunned me. In my moment of shock and anger, I made an inarticulate comment – which I do not believe — and which I apologize for entirely.
2. He’s a Registered Democrat Who Previously Worked for Michael Dukakis
Cohen’s role with Trump has been compared to George W. Bush crony Karl Rove. (Getty)
When Trump was mooted as a Republican candidate to take on President Obama in 2012, ABC News profiled Michael Cohen referring to him as “a registered Democrat who voted for Barack Obama in 2008.” The network added that Cohen had previously worked for Michael Dukakis’ failed 1988 presidential campaign and also for an unnamed Democratic congressman. At the time, ABC News called Cohen “Trump’s chief political advisor” adding that in Trump circles, Cohen is known as “Tom” in reference to Tom Hagen’s character in The Godfather, a key advisor to Vito and Michael Corleone. At the time, 2011, Cohen said to ABC that he felt disillusioned with Obama’s presidency since voting for the president in 2008. In 2010, Cohen co-founded the Trump hype machine website “Should Trump Run?”
3. Cohen Is Trump’s Primary Troubleshooter
On his profile at Trump’s foundation website, Cohen is named as the Donald’s “primary troubleshooter.” He’s also the co-president of Trump Entertainment. According to his LinkedIn page, Cohen has worked for Donald Trump since 2007. His profile adds, that despite registering as a Democrat, he ran for New York City council on the GOP ticket in 2003 “at the personal request of then-Governor George Pataki.” In addition to his work with Trump, Cohen serves on the board of TD Bank and the MTA. He lives in New York City with his wife and two kids.
4. In 2014, Cohen Sued an NYU Professor for ‘Ruining His Summer’
(LinkedIn)
Cohen has never been far from the tabloids. Famously, in 2014, he sued NYU Dr. Ali Guy, after he accused Guy of “ruining his summer.” The physician did this through renting Cohen a Hamptons home for a month at a cost of $150,000. The New York Post reports that Cohen was furious when he realized the house didn’t have working air conditioning and that the beds were too small for the Cohen family.
5. Coincidentally, Marital Rape Exemptions Were Deemed Unconstitutional in 1993, the Same Year Ivana Trump’s Book Was Published
(Getty)
Since 1993, marital rape became a crime in all 50 states. It was back in the 1970s that the movement to criminalize spousal sexual assault began in the U.S. Despite this, differences remain in each individual state, although these are mostly minor, except for South Carolina where force or threats must be used to constitute a crime.
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is an independent journalist and senior contributor to Heavy who covers breaking news and current events. He's from Ireland and lives in Brooklyn. Follow him on Twitter @PaulFarrell1895.
July 28, 2015 1:43 pm
Nice couple http://goo.gl/DgL4yV
So The Daily Beast quite deliberately misreports an old story about Donald Trump that was cleared up OVER TWENTY YEARS AGO, and we’re supposed to get mad at his advisor who blew his stack and misspoke over this conscious and deliberate lie rather than the so-called journalists and Democrat party hacks (but I repeat myself) who smeared it?
Well the story is old news. However it is not the story that makes me mad…..it is the fact that a lawyer says that you can not rape your wife??? Ok? His IQ level must be below average to make such a statement. Plain stupid idiot and that statement is to downgrade all women suffering from violence in their own homes. This guy is plain stupid and i feel for his wife in that case……
There’s nothing wrong with Mr. Cohen’s IQ level, Jesper Lind; in the heat of the moment he just forgot that the law had changed (like SofSt Haig forgot that the presidential succession rules had changed since he learned them in school during the trauma of the assassination attempt on Reagan). It’s a cheap shot “Gotcha!” on the part of journalists and Democrat party hacks (but I repeat myself) to try to make more of an issue out of it than to point out that he’d forgotten the law had changed, which in any case would not have applied in this case since what Mrs. Trump seemed to have alleged before she clarified her remarks took place before the law changed.
Until a little over 20 years ago there was in fact no such thing as marital rape. It was an old, old law that came straight out of English Common Law and was based on a misinterpretation of Biblical commandments. To people who think the Bible is a list of, “No, you can’t!”‘s it usually comes as a surprise to learn that God commands certain people to have sex and to have it regularly:
married couples.
In fact it is very clearly a sin in God’s opinion to refuse your spouse, and there’s an obvious good and sound reason for this godly commandment: to prevent adultery and the destruction of the marriage. Where the English common law went wrong is in forgetting that two wrongs do not make a right. Just because your wife has sinned by refusing you, that doesn’t make it OK for you to sin by forcing her. So it was a good law change; it is just surprising that it took so long, and one assumes that was because it was hardly ever committed.
Mr Cohen had just passed the bar in 1993 clearly he did not study and
Anonymous, now YOUR lack of IQ is showing: he passed the bar exam in the same year the law was changed. What are the chances that he studied the new version? About the same as yours are of understanding linear time?
Maybe his prestigious alma mater of Cooley law school did not teach him about quoting case law when he has no clue what he is talking about! He’s an angry person with anger issues and this time he let the whole world see it.
Maybe his prestigious alma mater taught him about quoting case law AS IT EXISTS AT THE TIME, not as it would exist in the future. I know it’s difficult for you to grasp, anonymous, but NO ONE can be taught what the law will be in the future so it’s human nature (not something I imagine you have much knowledge of) to remember what you learned not what it was later changed to after you graduated, especially in somewhat obscure areas of the subject matter that you get suddenly surprised with. But at least he corrected his mistake, which is more than you are capable of doing.
It’s obvious Mr. Cohen was trying to intimidate the reporter. Intimidation should not be tolerated.
It’s obvious the reporter was ignoring the FACT that the story had been debunked in 1993 when Ivanna Trump corrected the mistake her book had caused. Deliberately false reporting should not be tolerated.
So let me get this straight: The reporter is supposed to know this is an old story that had been debunked, but Cohen is not supposed to know it was debunked and reply as such instead of spouting an angry, inaccurate statement?
Hey, you don’t know it, but you got it almost exactly right, fromthepitts! The reporter had all the time in the world to investigate this and get it right before going public with a story that immediately blows up in his face. It’s called “reporting” or “journalism”, and though I don’t believe it has been taught at most journalism schools in the United States for several decades now, that’s not really an excuse.
Cohen on the other hand has only a few hours to put together a response to this example of incompetence or deliberate lying and though he got the main part of the story correct: Ivanna Trump had recanted the alleged rape charge as soon as she was asked about it back in 1993, he misremembered that the marital rape exception he’d been taught in law school had been overturned by the SCOTUS.
It’s the difference between honest misremembering on Mr. Cohen’s part and incompetence at best, deliberate lying at worst, on the part of the journalist or Democrat party hack (but I repeat myself).