President Trump told his former personal attorney Michael Cohen that the government had "weaponized" its power against him, a striking reconciliation between two men whose bitter legal feud defined the 2024 New York hush money trial.

A recorded clip of the conversation, shared Thursday by 77 WABC radio, captured Trump telling Cohen directly that prosecutors had forced him into the role of star witness against the president. The full interview will air Sunday on Cohen's WABC radio show, but the preview alone marks a dramatic turn in a relationship that once seemed irreparably destroyed by courtroom testimony and criminal convictions on both sides.

In the clip, Trump told Cohen that multiple people had been caught up in what he described as prosecutorial abuse, and that Cohen deserved credit for speaking out about it.

Trump praised Cohen for reversing course on testimony

Trump's words in the recorded exchange left little ambiguity about how he views the New York prosecutions that led to his 2024 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

"They weaponized government against you and against others, Michael. There were plenty of others too, and it's a disgrace."

Trump went further, praising Cohen for publicly reversing his stance on the testimony that helped convict the president.

"I think it's so amazing that you came out, and you told the story, and people respect you for doing it."

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 in Manhattan federal court to eight criminal counts tied to a payment scheme created to silence women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. He then became the prosecution's central witness in the 2024 trial. Now, Cohen says he was pushed into that role, and Trump appears willing to accept that explanation.

Cohen accused James and Bragg of running 'the same playbook'

Cohen laid the groundwork for this reconciliation earlier this year in a Substack post where he accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of pressuring him to deliver testimony against Trump.

"I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking."

He went further, drawing a direct line between two of the most prominent Democratic prosecutors in New York.

"Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office, but they share the same playbook."

Neither James nor Bragg has publicly responded to Cohen's allegations. The claims remain Cohen's account alone, but they align with a broader argument Trump and his allies have made for years: that Democratic prosecutors in New York pursued politically motivated cases designed to damage a Republican president. The debate over government weaponization has been a defining fault line in Trump-era politics.

Cohen's accusation carries a specific weight because he was, for years, the prosecution's most important cooperating witness. If the star witness now says he was coerced, the question shifts from whether Trump was guilty to whether the process that convicted him was legitimate.

A pardon application sits unanswered at the White House

The reconciliation is not merely symbolic. Cohen has submitted a pardon application during Trump's second term, a step that would have been unthinkable during the years when the two men traded public accusations and Cohen cooperated with federal investigators.

Cohen told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview Thursday evening that the relationship between himself and Trump had been "resuscitated." His language carried an almost personal tone unusual for a legal matter of this magnitude.

"I truly believe that there is forgiveness between Donald Trump and myself, and that to me is what is important right now."

Cohen said he has not received confirmation that the White House received his pardon application and has not raised the matter directly with Trump. He planned to follow up with the White House on Friday. The administration's handling of Trump-related legal matters has drawn close public attention throughout the second term.

In other segments from the WABC interview shared Thursday, Trump touched on topics beyond the Cohen relationship. He defended his administration's military operations in Iran and pushed back on what he characterized as misleading polling data.

"I think that we're doing really well in the polls, the real polls," Trump said. "If I were running today, I think I'd win by 25 points. I think we'd win by a lot."

Cohen's shift raises hard questions for New York prosecutors

The broader implications of Cohen's reversal extend well beyond a personal reconciliation. Cohen was the linchpin of the Manhattan District Attorney's case, the witness who connected Trump to the business records at the center of the 34-count conviction. If Cohen now maintains he was coerced into that testimony, it raises serious questions about the integrity of the prosecution itself.

James and Bragg built their public profiles in large part on their willingness to pursue cases against Trump. Cohen's accusation, that they shared "the same playbook", suggests a coordinated effort between two separate offices to target a political opponent. That charge, if substantiated, would represent exactly the kind of prosecutorial abuse that erodes public trust in the justice system. Democrats have meanwhile signaled they intend to continue pursuing investigations of the president through other channels.

Several key questions remain unanswered. The current legal status of Trump's 2024 conviction is unclear from available reporting. Neither James nor Bragg has responded to Cohen's claims. And the White House has given no public indication of how it will handle the pardon application from a man who once served prison time for crimes committed, in part, on Trump's behalf.

Politically motivated prosecutions are not unique to New York. Across the country, cases involving elected officials and partisan legal battles have tested public confidence in whether the justice system operates on evidence or ideology.

The full Trump-Cohen interview airs Sunday on 77 WABC. Whatever else it contains, the preview clip already delivered the central message: the man who helped convict Donald Trump now says the prosecutors who put him on the stand were the real problem.

When your star witness flips, not once, but twice, the case says less about the defendant than about the people who built it.