Michael Cohen Testifies That He Threatened Colleges and College Board if They Released Trump’s Records

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[Updated (2/27/2019, 9:26 p.m.) with a response from Fordham University.]

Michael D. Cohen, a former personal lawyer for President Trump, said in testimony on Wednesday before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee that, at Trump’s direction, he had threatened legal action against the College Board, Trump’s former high school, and the universities he attended if they released the president’s academic records.

Trump spent two years at Fordham University, in New York, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania’s business school for his undergraduate degree.

In a 2015 letter to Fordham, Cohen cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, writing that the institution could not release Trump’s academic records without permission and would be held “liable to the fullest extent of the law.” Cohen also wrote that releasing Trump’s records without approval could lead to “criminal and civil liability and damages including, among other things, substantial fines, penalties, and even the potential loss of government aid and other funding.”

Here’s a letter Michael Cohen wrote to Fordham University a month before Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, threatening them with legal action if they released Trump’s college records. Includes a remarkable P.S. pic.twitter.com/fxGHrUtuFX

— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) February 27, 2019

A Fordham spokesman told The Chronicle in an email on Wednesday that the institution had received a phone call and a letter from Trump’s lawyer. The university said it could not share the records “with anyone except Mr. Trump himself, or any recipient he designated, in writing.”

The letter was dated a month before Trump opened his presidential campaign.

In written testimony Cohen said he would provide the committee with copies of the letters he had sent, which “threaten[ed] the schools with civil and criminal action” if the president’s grades or SAT scores were disclosed without permission.

The University of Pennsylvania and the College Board declined to comment.

Follow Terry Nguyen on Twitter at @terrygtnguyen, or email her at terry.nguyen@chronicle.com.