Roy Cohn: the monster that bred Trump

SUE TURNER surveys detailed and often gossipy biography of the notorious New York lawyer, who built a career by persecuting communists

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PART of Roy Cohn’s infamy comes from his collaboration with two of the most mendacious men in post-war America; Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump.

Born an only child with a doting mother into a wealthy New York family, he soon learnt to get his own way by lying and bullying. His father taught him that life was a transactional game, and from his mother he learnt that whatever he wanted he could demand it.

At his elite Jewish school he learnt to wheel and deal, ignoring rules and realising that if you have the right connections, strings can be pulled and favours called in. As a teenager he was already a member of the American Jewish League Against Communism.

He became a federal prosecutor at 21 and was instrumental in the prosecution of 12 leaders of the CPUSA on charges of advocating the overthrow of the government by force. They were sentenced to five years.

His next big case was to convict William Remington, a civil servant accused of passing information to the Russians. After a complex set of proceedings and irregular tactics from Cohn, Remington was sentenced to three years.

Cohn was to use many questionable methods to gain prosecutions but the most infamous and sickening case of all was his pursuit of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were charged with spying for the Russians and convicted partly on the false testimony of Ethel’s brother, who had been induced to lie by Cohn. 

Cohn later remarked that he had done nothing wrong, saying they only framed people they knew were guilty. Cohn held out for the death sentence for the Rosenbergs, and after they were sent to the electric chair he boasted: “I think it’s been a very good year for the anti-Communist front. I have no misgivings about the execution of the Rosenbergs… I would have pulled the lever myself.”

Having proved himself in winning convictions, Cohn was appointed chief counsel on the House Un-American Activities Committee headed by Senator McCarthy. The two were a match made in hell; the drinking, gambling, womanising, street-smart McCarthy and the abstemious, non-gambling and certainly non-womanising Cohn. Both were ruthlessly ambitious and committed to the Communist witch-hunt of the early 1950s.

Bird details other examples of Cohn’s modus operandi, showing what an unprincipled operator he was, feeding off, and feeding into, a murky pit of corruption. Cohn said that to be successful as a lawyer: “I don’t need files, l don’t need case histories. Just give me the judge.”

By 1960 he was a millionaire lawyer, businessman and New York celebrity, with mobsters among his clients. Accused of bribery, extortion and blackmail, Cohn found himself in the dock more than once, but always went free.

He had learnt some useful lessons: attack your critics in the public arena, delay proceedings with challenges and appeals, deny everything, never apologise nor admit defeat.

Cohn was reviled by gay rights activists due to the lifelong denial of his homosexuality and his hounding of gay men out of their federal jobs. He opposed any positive legislation for gay rights, despite it being common knowledge that he was very actively gay.

Cohn met Trump in 1973 and became his legal counsel. At that time Trump wanted to expand his property portfolio from Queens into the more upmarket Manhattan. He learnt a lot from Cohn: do business by phone leaving no paper trails, ignore rules, avoid paying taxes and bills.

By the late 1970s Cohn was known for mob law and divorce law. In 1986, after he was found guilty of unethical conduct, he was barred from practising law, dying soon after from Aids.

At 500 pages this is a detailed and often gossipy biography of Cohn. Bird tries to give a rounded picture of him by describing his active social life and his friendships, but despite the eulogies at his memorial service, Cohn had no redeeming features, ending up a disgraced lawyer and a feared, ruthless business operator.

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