From Medallion Mogul to Presidential Fixer: Michael Cohen’s Rise and Fall

Here’s what you’ll find on today’s show:

— By now, you’ve probably heard of Michael Cohen. Cohen is most famous today as President Trump’s personal lawyer and all-purpose fixer. He paid off Stormy Daniels through a shell company to quash allegations of a sexual liaison. And recently it was revealed in open court that Cohen has Fox New pundit Sean Hannity as a client. That information was disclosed subsequent to a raid of Cohen’s offices by the F.B.I. earlier this month. But long before President Trump, Michael Cohen was working with shady lawyers like Simon Garber, the first in a long and unlikely career that begins in a small taxi cab law office in Queens, and goes all the way to the president of the United States.

— According to a new investigation by Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting, car-maker Tesla has been under-reporting its workers’ serious injuries to maintain higher safety ratings. According to Reveal’s Will Evans, absent from the public imagination about the futuristic car manufacturer is gruesome imagery related to lax safety precautions. “You don’t see the people who are being cut by machinery, or who are losing the use of their arms through repetitive motion problems, or who are being exposed to toxic fumes and having long-term medical problems because of that,” Evans said.

— In a new mini-documentary by Retro Report, the myths and misperceptions about eating disorders are exposed through interviews with those afflicted. The documentary opens, “For decades, Hollywood has exploited our morbid fascination with eating disorders in one dramatic film after another. But the facts are that an estimated 30 million Americans will suffer some form of eating disorder in their lifetimes.”

— Islamophobia is defined by Merriam Webster as, “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against Islam or people who practice Islam.” It’s a phrase we’re all familiar with in the post 9/11 world but its roots in the United States date back much further, centuries in fact. Early examples of how ethnic prejudice was codified into American law can be found in 18th-century immigration policy, where people of the Islamic faith were excluded from citizenship due to restrictions on that privilege to anyone not a white Christian. Over the next few centuries, Islamophobic policies may have become less explicit, but they were still fully institutionalized, targeting people of the faith and of Arab descent in the sectors of law enforcement, surveillance, and the judicial system.

— First lady Barbara Bush died yesterday at the age of 92. Family spokesman Jim McGrath first announced the first lady’s passing in her Houston home yesterday: “A former First Lady of the United States of America and relentless proponent of family literacy, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at the age of 92. She is survived by her husband of 73 years, President George H. W. Bush; five children and their spouses; 17 grandchildren; seven great grandchildren; and her brother, Scott Pierce. She was preceded in death by her second child, Pauline Robinson “Robin” Bush, and her siblings Martha Rafferty and James R. Pierce.”