It was by far the least explosive allegation that former Trump personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen made before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, but it was in some ways the most bizarre: Donald Trump threatened his alma mater with legal action if his college records or SAT scores were released.
Michael Cohen: I threatened Fordham to keep quiet about Trump’s SAT scores and grades
In 2015, Cohen wrote a letter to Trump’s alma mater demanding that the candidate’s grades and SAT scores be sealed.
Cohen provided the committee with a letter he sent on then-candidate Trump’s behalf to Fordham University in 2015, which said, “if in the event any of his records are released or otherwise disclosed without his prior written consent, we will hold your institution liable to the fullest extent of the law including damages and criminality.”
The letter is directed at both Fordham University (where Trump attended before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in 1966) and the College Board, which administers the SAT. “We will hold your institution liable to the fullest extent of the law” including “damages and criminality,” the letter reads in part, concluding, “Please guide yourself accordingly and contact me to inform me that the records have been permanently sealed.”
(It’s worth noting that Fordham and the College Board are two separate organizations, yet Cohen addressed both in his letter to Fordham. He was, apparently, not a very good lawyer.)
A spokesperson for Fordham University confirmed receiving the letter to BuzzFeed News, adding that the university also received a call from a member of the Trump campaign.
The letter came three years after Trump posted a video to YouTube in 2012 in which he offered then-President Obama a $5 million donation if he released “his college records and applications” and “passport applications and records.”
A prominent birther, Trump repeatedly argued both before and during his presidential campaign that Obama was not qualified to attend Columbia and Harvard. In an interview with the Associated Press in 2011, Trump said, “I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I’m thinking about it, I’m certainly looking into it. Let him show his records.”
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