A lawyer who said he was working on behalf of two women who claimed that the former New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, had "sexually victimized" them, asserted on Friday that he had discussed the claims in 2013 with Michael D. Cohen, Donald J. Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer.
The lawyer for the women, Peter J. Gleason, filed a letter on Friday in the ongoing investigation of Mr. Cohen, seeking an order to protect any records that Mr. Cohen may have concerning the women. As part of that investigation, federal agents raided Mr. Cohen's office, apartment and hotel room last month.
Mr. Gleason said in an interview that Mr. Cohen had told him that if Mr. Trump were to run for and be elected governor of New York, he would help bring to light the women's accusations about Mr. Schneiderman. There had been deep animus between Mr. Trump and Mr. Schneiderman ever since Mr. Schneiderman filed a $40 million civil fraud lawsuit against Trump University in August 2013.
Mr. Gleason's accusations came to light in the letter, filed to Kimba M. Wood, the Manhattan federal judge overseeing the Cohen investigation.Mr. Gleason also said in the interview, without offering details or corroborating evidence, that he had told elected officials of his concerns about Mr. Schneiderman's abusive behavior nearly five years ago, but was rebuffed.
Mr. Gleason refused to identify the officials, and said that the women were not among the four who came forward this week in an article in The New Yorker about Mr. Schneiderman's physical assaults on his former companions.
"The highest levels of our state and city government were well aware of Eric Schneiderman," he said.
A spokesman for the law firm of Clayman & Rosenberg, which is representing Mr. Schneiderman, declined to comment. Lawyers for Mr. Cohen did not return a call seeking comment.
In the letter, Mr. Gleason said that he eventually decided to take his clients' accusations against Mr. Schneiderman to Steven Dunleavy, a former columnist for The New York Post. According to the letter, Mr. Dunleavy "offered to discuss the matter with Donald Trump."
Within a day of speaking with Mr. Dunleavy, Mr. Gleason said, he received a phone call from Mr. Cohen.
In September 2013, Mr. Trump posted a cryptic attack on Mr. Schneiderman on Twitter, comparing him unfavorably with two other Democratic politicians felled by scandal: former Representative Anthony D. Weiner and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. "Weiner is gone, Spitzer gone — next will be lightweight A.G. Eric Schneiderman," Mr. Trump wrote. "Is he a crook? Wait and see, worse than Spitzer or Weiner."
Mr. Gleason said that Mr. Trump's Twitter attack was directly prompted by his conversation with Mr. Cohen.
"That tweet that Trump sent out about Schneiderman," Mr. Gleason said, "my conversation with Cohen happened shortly before that."
Mr. Cohen is under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for potentially breaking the law by trying to suppress negative news coverage of Mr. Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Mr. Gleason's account was supported in part by Jeanne Wilcke, the treasurer of the Downtown Independent Democrats, a New York City political club that Mr. Gleason belongs to. In an interview on Friday, Ms. Wilcke said that in 2013, Mr. Gleason had warned her about Mr. Schneiderman without revealing any specific details.
"He told me I should be very careful about Schneiderman," Ms. Wilcke said. "Not to be in a room alone with him — for women, it was bad."
Ms. Wilcke, a former president of the organization, noted that the club had supported Mr. Schneiderman for many years. But, she added, "every once in a while, Pete would again give me a warning. It registered with me."
New York Times, May 11, 2018
###
May 11, 2018
Post Script. Yes, Schneiderman is a sick and dangerous man whohad to go, but this new information raises another issue: did the Mafia Don in the White House bring him down, to obstruct the investigations against him? Is this another example of Trump’s criminal behavior?