Roy Cohn
1927–1986
McCarthy's chief counsel, mob consigliere, and the man who taught Donald Trump the method.
Roy Cohn is the operating system this whole site keeps rediscovering: favors as currency, attack as reflex, never apologize, never settle. He ran the Red Scare hearings as Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel, served as consigliere to New York's Five Families, and then poured that method into a young Donald Trump — and, through him, into American politics for the next fifty years.
What the record shows
Every entry is graded and, where possible, links to the investigation that documents it. This page introduces no new claims — it collects what is already on the record.
As Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel, he engineered the Red Scare and Lavender Scare purges.
FACTCohn ran the 1953–54 Senate investigations that destroyed careers on accusations of communism and homosexuality — the template for weaponized government inquiry.
He was a consigliere to the Five Families, with mob clients including Salerno and Castellano.
FACTPolitico's David Cay Johnston calls him flatly 'a mob consigliere.' Clients included 'Fat Tony' Salerno (Genovese) and Paul Castellano (Gambino); his townhouse doubled as a privilege-shielded back room the FBI couldn't wiretap.
He sat on both sides of the concrete pipeline that built Trump Tower.
FACTTrump Tower and Trump Plaza were poured with concrete from S&A Concrete, a firm the government proved was controlled by Salerno and Castellano through the mob's 'Concrete Club' — with Cohn representing both Trump and the men behind the concrete.
He was Donald Trump's mentor and lawyer, and taught him the method.
FACTAttack, counter-sue, never admit fault, turn every relationship into a favor owed. Trump has spent a lifetime running the Cohn playbook.
He passed the operating system to Roger Stone.
FACTStone learned the trade at Cohn's side in the late 1970s and carried it from Nixon's dirty tricks to the rally the day before January 6.
He was disbarred weeks before his death for dishonesty.
FACTNew York disbarred Cohn in 1986 for unethical and dishonest conduct, including lying and pressuring a dying client to amend his will. He died months later.
Every investigation that touches Roy
Resolved live from the investigations index — this list grows as new coverage lands.
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