Cohen was not crime lawyer. And any high-level lawyer will tell you that even them will not represent themselves in a criminal investigation nor are they immune from make false confessions under the pressure of the federal government.

There was a fairly effective push to dismantle groups linked to Trump's electoral success [0]. They had a similar air of bullshit charges that only became an issue because prosecutors wanted to achieve political ends.

It is weird, but it is likely he is being threatened. If they can get Trump arrested for this, they can certainly put Cohen in jeopardy.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/21/us/mueller-tr...

Worth mentioning that Stormy Daniels claims that she and her child were threatened over this issue.

> 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.' And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.'

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/stormy-dan...

that alone is pretty serious stuff, the hard part is proving it actually happened (if I was dealing with such things I would always record every conversation on some tiny recorder, not phone, but thats me)

> if I was dealing with such things I would always record every conversation on some tiny recorder

that would also be illegal though, and could not be used in court as evidence? (Not a lawyer, not legal advice) On the other hand, nowadays it's pretty easy to fake voice recordings. I'm not sure if it can be done in a way that is hard to detect by experts.

IANAL, but I think recording the conversation surreptitiously is legal in NY, as long as one party knows they’re being recorded.

At the US Federal level the law is "one party consent", meaning that someone who is a party to a private conversation can record it without requiring the approval of the other part(y/ies). You can't record someone else's private conversation without approval, but you can record those you are a party to.

Some states have stricter "two party consent" laws which require both/all parties to approve, which is why most national companies put automated warnings in their phone systems if they're recording any calls.

That wasn't the only crime he pled guilty to. Likely had to plea guilty to all crimes to get his deal.