Lawyer Says He Represents Two Alleged Victims of Schneiderman, and That He Talked to Cohen and Trump About the Claims

Attorney Peter Gleason has submitted a letter to the judge overseeing the handling of materials seized from the residence, office, and hotel room of Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen. In the letter Gleason, who is not a party in the case, requests that the judge place a protective order on any materials pertaining to Gleason’s conversations with Cohen about allegations made by two women against former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The judge, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood has appointed a special master to sort through documents seized by the FBI, to protect documents that may fall under attorney-client privilege.

Gleason states in the letter that he encouraged the women not to go to the Manhattan District Attorney with their allegations because he had found that Manattan prosecutors had ignored previous corruption claims he had brought forward.

Gleason told the New York Times that Cohen suggested to him that if Trump ran for New York governor, he would make public the allegations against Schneiderman.

Here is an excerpt from Gleason’s letter. (Note: Schneiderman’s name is misspelled two different ways in the document. I have left the spelling intact.)
“My office was contacted some years ago by two unrelated women who at two separate times (approximately 1 year apart) claimed that Mr. Scheiderman was sexually inappropriate with them.
“After the first consultation with one of Scheinderman's victims I explained to her how invariably the very entities that were established to protect her would ultimately turn on her to protect the power elite that includes Scheinderman.
“Approximately one year later, sometime in 2013, another woman contacted my office with an almost identical story on how she too was victimized by Scheinderman. At first glance the logical recommendation would have been to report this matter to the Manhattan District Attorney. Unfortunately, I had to advise this woman against reporting the incident to the Manhattan District Attorney Office based on my past experience in reporting prima facie political corruption that was ignored by the office, some of which were ultimately prosecuted elsewhere.
“At a minimum, I wanted these women to realize that somebody believed them, and that their horrific experiences at the hands of Scheinderman would not be brushed under the rug.
“I discussed the matter with a retired journalist by the name of Stephen Dunleavy who suggested and offered to discuss the matter with Donald Trump. Mr. Dunleavy did indeed discuss this very matter with Mr. Trump as evidenced by a phone call I received from Attorney Michael Cohen.
“During my communications with Mr. Cohen I shared with him certain details of Scheinderman's vile attacks on these two women.”
The entire letter can be read here.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4457945-Order-on-Letter-Motion.html
An article in Talking Points Memo gives more detail.
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/gleason-schneiderman-cohen

The article in the New York Times can be read here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/nyregion/eric-schneiderman-michael-cohen.html

This is a developing story.