Cohen Threatened to Sue Schools That Released Trump’s Grades
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Trump attended Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills from First through seventh grade, but it is unclear as of press time whether Cohen threatened the elite prep school. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).
By Jonathan Sperling
UPDATE [5:27 p.m.]: A spokesperson for Kew-Forest School, where Trump attended from first through seventh grade, provided a response.
President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen revealed that the Jamaica Estates native directed him to threaten legal action against several of the president’s schools if they ever released his grades, Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
Trump attended Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills from first through seventh grade, but a spokesperson said the school did not think it received menacing correspondence from the president’s disgraced attorney.
"To our knowledge we've never received a letter from Mr. Cohen," a spokesperson from Kew-Forest told the Eagle.
The spokesperson declined to give Trump’s grades to the Eagle and said all student grades are confidential without consent of the student.
Cohen penned letters to the New York Military Academy, Fordham University and the non-profit College Board stating that the institutions would face criminal and civil penalties — including jail time — if they released Trump’s school records to the media.
“It has come to my attention that several media outlets have asked for the release of my client’s records,” Cohen wrote in a letter to Fordham in May 2015. “We have turned down these requests … the release or disclosure, in any form, of such records (or any information contained in such records) to any third party without my client’s prior written authorization is expressly prohibited by law, with any violation thereof exposing the subject educational institution to both criminal and civil liability and damages.
“The criminality will lead to jail time,” the letter continued.
Cohen, who was recently disbarred in New York, did not specifically mention if the president directed him to contact the Kew-Forest School, a private college preparatory school that has educated many notable Queens natives including “Goodnight Moon” author Margaret Wise Brown and actor Hank Azaria, who has worked on The Simpsons for decades.
Trump was a bit of a troubled child during his time at the Kew-Forest School, his former classmates told the NYCity NewsService in 2016.
The young Trump reportedly partook in hair-pulling and spitball throwing, and even admitted in his book, “The Art of the Deal,” that he “gave a teacher a black eye,” in the second grade.
There is no mention of Trump on the Kew-Forest School’s website.
