Politics

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen reportedly hires ex-federal prosecutor Guy Petrillo as his new criminal defense attorney

Key Points
  • President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen has reportedly hired Guy Petrillo as his new criminal defense attorney.
  • Cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
  • Petrillo had served for nearly two years as head of the criminal division in the office now investigating Cohen.
Michael Cohen
Jeenah Moon | Reuters

President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen has hired former federal prosecutor Guy Petrillo as his new defense attorney to deal with a criminal probe in New York, Vanity Fair reported Tuesday.

The reported Petrillo hiring has not yet been reflected in a public filing in a federal court in Manhattan. Vanity Fair attributed the report to two sources. It comes days after reports that Cohen was shopping around for a new lawyer to replace his current attorneys, Stephen Ryan and Todd Harrison.

Cohen did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

Petrillo, a partner in the New York firm Petrillo Klein & Boxer, and Cohen's current defense team did not immediately return requests for comment from CNBC.

Petrillo served as chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York from 2008 through October 2009.

That is the same division currently investigating Cohen for his business dealings and a $130,000 hush-money payment he made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels has said the money was in exchange for her silence about an affair she had with Trump. The White House has denied he had sex with her, but Trump has admitted reimbursing Cohen for the payment to her.

FBI agents raided Cohen's apartment, office and hotel room in New York on April 9 and seized records relating to Daniels as well as other information.

Cohen has not been charged in the case.

Petrillo's website notes that "his experience includes hundreds of client representations covering the broad spectrum of criminal prosecutions." He has defended people accused of, among other things, financial industry fraud, money laundering and banking violations.

His firm also boasts on its website that it obtains "extraordinary outcomes for clients in high-stakes financial and business disputes and white collar criminal and regulatory matters."