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Trump Reportedly Had Dinnerware Fumigated After a Visit From Lawyer Dying Due to AIDS

Trump's personal lawyer, Roy Cohn, visited Mar-a-Lago during one of the last months of his life.

President Trump reportedly once had the dinnerware fumigated after a visit from his former lawyer, Roy Cohn, who was dying of complications due to AIDS.

It was already apparent Trump knew nothing about HIV/AIDS, having asked Bill Gates, not once but twice, how it was different from HPV. Now a new report has come to light about his ignorance regarding the topic from the book The Fixers, written by investigative journalists Joe Palazzolo and Michael Rothfeld, all about the various people Trump has employed over the years to help him get away with his numerous misdeeds.

Cohn represented Trump during the early days of his business career, and is credited with teaching him to hit back hard against critics and use legal threats to silence those with legitimate complaints. He first represented Trump during his troubles with the Justice Department in the 1970s, which accused him of violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968 by discriminating against African Americans. Cohn filed an unsuccessful countersuit against the government, for $100 million, and Trump eventually settled the issue out of court.

Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images

NEW YORK, NY - 1983: Roy Cohn (L) and Donald Trump attend the Trump Tower opening in October 1983 at The Trump Tower in New York City. (Photo by Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images)

Cohn and Trump attend the Trump Tower opening in October 1983 at The Trump Tower in New York City.

Cohn's sexuality has been much discussed and debated over the years, with most assessments characterizing him as a closeted gay man. The book calls his "homosexuality and promiscuity...an open secret." What is not in dispute is that he was nearing the end in 1986, when Trump invited him "for what seemed like a farewell dinner at Mar-a-Lago."

"At the table, the place settings were ornate, and a gold candelabra rested on the table. Guests paid tribute to the dying lawyer," Palazzolo and Rothfeld write.

"Dining with friends at Mar-a-Lago in late December, three weeks before he'd assume the presidency, Trump shared yet another memory," they report. "This one perhaps was evoked by the resort and Cohn's last visit there, a few months before he died of AIDS. Trump recalled to his guests that after Cohn had left, 'I had to spend a fortune to fumigate all the dishes and silverware.'"

Cohn was the first of two Trump lawyers to be disbarred, the second being Michael Cohen, whose relationship with the president is also examined in The Fixers, out this month from Random House.

A sample from the book, concerning Trump and Cohn's relationship, follows.

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