Michael Cohen’s family doxed in wake of testimony in Trump criminal trial

Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building on his way to Manhattan criminal court in New York last month. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen has become the latest target of doxing efforts by supporters of the former president following Trump’s conviction of criminally falsifying business records last week.

According to Advance Democracy, the addresses and phone numbers of Cohen’s wife and children were posted on a website on Monday, days after the non-profit group warned of a high volume of social media posts containing violent rhetoric targeting the New York judge Juan Merchan and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, each of whom played key roles in Trump’s conviction.

The group also warned that posts of the purported addresses of trial jurors had appeared on a fringe online board known for threatening, pro-Trump content.

“What sad times we are living through when people resort to this type of doxing stupidity to redress their grievances,” Cohen said in a statement to NBC News.

Cohen presented a polarizing figure during Trump’s month-long trial. The longtime Trump loyalist, who previously served prison time for tax fraud, testified against the former president, saying that he had been directed to organize a hush-money payment to the porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from telling her story of a sexual encounter with Trump.

The president of Advance Democracy, Daniel Jones, told the outlet that his group had been scanning the internet for threats and instigations of political violence. He said: “During our most recent scan, we identified personal details online – doxing – for Michael Cohen, his wife and his children.”

Jones continued: “The individual who shared the information online, on a site known for doxing, likely had an intent to harm Cohen – providing these personal details on the Cohen family in the context of calling Cohen a ‘lying bastard’ and identifying him as someone who ‘betrayed Trump’, presumably for testifying for the prosecution in former president Trump’s [New York] criminal trial.”

Last week, the group said that the doxing – defined as publishing private or identifying information on the internet, often with a malicious intent – of figures related to the prosecution had appeared on a website known as “The Donald” and used by Trump supporters to organize for violence ahead of their attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

“Dox the Jurors. Dox them now,” one user wrote after Trump’s conviction. Another wrote: “We need to identify each juror. Then make them miserable. Maybe even suicidal.” A third wrote that they needed a million armed men to go to Washington and “hang everyone. That’s the only solution.”

An increase in doxing and swatting efforts – when armed police are falsely called to a home – have targeted politicians and their families on both sides of the political spectrum.

According to news reports, a January 6 participant showed up at Barack Obama’s home after the former president’s address was posted on Trump’s Truth Social platform. Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing Trump’s federal election interference case in Washington, has also been swatted.

At least three members of Congress reported “swatting” incidents over the 2023 holidays, including the New York Republican Brandon Williams, Florida Republican senator Rick Scott, Georgia Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Maine secretary of state, Shenna Bellows.

In an FBI alert about swatting in 2022, the agency warned that “individuals who engage in this activity use technology, such as caller ID spoofing, social engineering, [teletypewriter technology] and prank calls to make it appear that the emergency call is coming from the victim’s phone”.

In an earlier warning, Jones told NBC that his organization was “continuing to see a dangerous erosion of democratic norms” and an increase in online activity after the Trump verdict. That had made it important for elected officials to “speak out against the disinformation Trump is spreading, as well the calls for violence he’s inspiring”, Jones said.

“Trump and his allies have been spreading disinformation about the trial, challenging [judge] Merchan’s impartiality, and describing the entire process as ‘rigged’ for weeks,” he added. “As such, it’s not a surprise that some of his most fervent supporters are now calling for doxing and violence against jurors, the judge and the district attorney.”