Where’s My Roy Cohn?

For those trying to understand today’s political landscape, Matt Tyrnauer’s insightful, informative documentary about Roy Cohn sheds a lot of light. In 1973, when brash young real estate mogul Donald Trump met Roy Cohn—one of New York’s most ruthless power brokers—Trump was completing the Grand Hyatt Hotel near Grand Central Terminal. When the Justice Department claimed that Trump apartment buildings discriminated against black applicants, attorney Cohn advised him to countersue the Justice Dept. for $100 million. Best known as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during 1954’s Army-McCarthy hearings, Cohn became Trump’s mentor, training him in transactional power laundering and hardball deal-making, which involved scaring potential adversaries/accusers with shamelessly inventive fabrication, hollow threats, and hints of lawsuits. Columnist Liz Smith observed, 'Donald lost his moral compass when he made an alliance with Roy Cohn.' The film’s title stems from a remark by Trump during his frustration with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. What’s perhaps most surprising about Tyrnauer’s documentary is how Manhattan socialites embraced openly repugnant Cohn. Known as a deeply closeted homosexual, Cohn claimed to have been engaged to Barbara Walters. Eventually, he was disbarred for cheating his clients. Unable to practice law, he continued to advise the rich, famous, and unscrupulous until his death from AIDS in 1986. Combining insightful archival footage with detailed interviews, Tyrnauer has said of this film that he felt it was time to 'connect the dots, to show how one of the darkest figures in our modern history created the worst president and most dangerous president in American history.' Recommended. (S. Granger)