Overview
- The president posted a rapid series of messages on Truth Social in the late-night hours into Tuesday, June 2, urging immediate dismissal of both the Manhattan criminal case and the New York attorney general’s civil fraud suit.
- Trump cited a Substack essay from Michael Cohen published earlier this year in which Cohen says he felt “pressured and coerced” by Manhattan and state prosecutors when he testified in the 2023 and 2024 trials.
- Those trials produced concrete legal outcomes: a judge initially ordered more than $450 million in civil penalties that was later reduced on appeal, and a jury convicted Trump on 34 criminal counts tied to reimbursements to Cohen.
- No court has dismissed the cases or formally withdrawn Cohen’s testimony in response to his essay or Trump’s posts, so the prior judgments and convictions remain part of the active legal record as appeals and other challenges proceed.
- Coverage of the posts varies by outlet and political lean, with some publications echoing Trump’s demand for dismissal and others calling the late-night barrage a political outburst, a divide that could intensify public debate and affect appeals and oversight of the prosecutors involved.