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Rosie O'Donnell Visited Michael Cohen In Prison. Yes, That Michael Cohen.

The comedian and former talk show host first became pen pals with the ex-fixer for her mortal enemy, Donald Trump.

Rosie O’Donnell was willing to let bygones be bygones in her long feud with US President Donald Trump ― well, at least with one of his associates.

The comedian told “Late Night” host Seth Meyers on Wednesday that she’d visited former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen in prison before the coronavirus pandemic swept across the US. She said Cohen was contrite about his crimes ― and apologised for his role in Trump’s treatment of her.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 after he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and violating campaign finance law by funnelling hush money to women who allegedly had trysts with Trump.

Trump has feuded with O’Donnell for years, starting long before he was elected president. He repeatedly threatened to sue the former talk show host, as is his pattern. But mostly the rivalry has involved name-calling. Trump has labeled her a “loser” and a “pig,” among other insults, while O’Donnell has dissed Trump as “dumb” and a “con man.”

O’Donnell explained to Meyers that she saw something familiar in Cohen. As Trump’s impeachment unfolded, she found herself thinking that while Cohen was sitting in prison, the man he did the dirty work for was sitting in the White House.

Michael Cohen leaves his apartment in May 2019 to begin serving his three-year sentence.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Michael Cohen leaves his apartment in May 2019 to begin serving his three-year sentence.

So she wrote Cohen a letter and she said he emailed her back, apologizing for the attacks on her because “a lot of people told him I was a good person.”

After exchanging notes for months, O’Donnell finally visited him at the “college campus”-like Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in New York state earlier this year. Cohen has since been scheduled to be released from prison and serve the rest of his sentence at home amid the pandemic.

“The great thing he told me was that the whole time he worked for Trump ... his wife and kids kept saying, ‘You gotta quit that job,’” O’Donnell told Meyers. “And he got tears in his eyes and he said, ‘I just wish I listened to my wife and kids. If I listened to my wife and kids, I wouldn’t be here.’”

O’Donnell, who also discussed the prison visit earlier this month on Howard Stern’s show, hasn’t been silent about Cohen’s former boss either. She said last week that she believes Trump will lose the November election in a landslide.

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