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He was born in Manhattan, the only child of Albert Cohn, a New York judge who was influential in Democratic Party politics, and Dora Marcus Cohn. He lived with his parents until his mother's death in 1969, after which he lived in New York, the District of Columbia, and Greenwich, Connecticut. He died at the National Institute of Health hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
Cohn graduated from Columbia Law School at the age of 20, and began working for the office of United States AttorneyUnited States Attorneys represent the U. federal government in United States district court. There are 93 U. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Attorney is assigned to Irving Saypol in Manhattan. As Saypol's assistant, Cohn helped to win a number of high-profile anti-communist cases. Mr. Cohn was known for his zealous prosecution of William Remington (a former Commerce Department employee whom he convicted of perjury relating to his membership in the Communist party), for the prosecution of eleven Communist Party leaders for sedition under the Smith Act, and for his work in the Alger HissAlger Hiss ( November 11, 1904 November 15, 1996) was a U. lawyer and government official accused of spying for the Soviet Union. He was convicted of perjury and sentenced to five years imprisonment. He was not charged with spying, as the statute of limit case. But Cohn was most famous for his prominent role in the 1951 espionageEspionage is the practice of obtaining secrets spying from rivals or enemies for military, political, or economic advantage. It is usually thought of as part of an organized (ie, governmental or corporate) effort. A spy is an agent employed to obtain such trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Cohn's cross-examination of Ethel's brother produced the testimony that was mostly responsible for the Rosenbergs' conviction and execution.
Cohn took great pride in the Rosenberg case, and claimed to have played an even greater part than his public role: he said in his autobiography that his own influence had led to both Saypol and Judge Irving KaufmanIrving Robert Kaufman ( June 24, 1910 February 1, 1992) was the judge who presided over the trial of Ethel Rosenberg. Roy Cohn, the prosecutor in the case who happened to be a family friend of Kaufman, claimed in his autobiography that his influence led t (a family friend) being appointed to the case, and that Kaufman had imposed the death penalty on Cohn's personal advice.
The Rosenberg trial brought the 24-year-old Cohn to the attention of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who recommended him to Joseph McCarthy. He soon became McCarthy's chief counsel—chosen over Robert Kennedy—and gained power nearly equal to McCarthy's in the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, becoming known for his aggressive questioning of suspected communists. After his appointment, Cohn continued to perform as if he were a prosecutor rather than grand jury. Cohn tended to be uninclined to hold the hearing in open forums. This mixed well with McCarthy's preference for holding "executive sessions" and "off-the-record" sessions far away from the Capitol in order to minimize public scrutiny and question witnesses. Cohn, though chosen in part to avoid accusations of an anti-semitic motivation for the investigations, was given free rein in pursuit of investigations. McCarthy would come to admit in regards to Cohn that "putting a young man in charge of other men doesn't work out too well."
McCarthy arranged for Cohn's long-time friend, G. David Schine, to be given leave from the Army to serve on the subcommittee; this fueled clashes with the Army which later contributed to McCarthy's public discrediting. After McCarthy was censured in 1954, Cohn resigned and went into private practice.
When the NBC television network produced a movie in the early 1980s about McCarthy's career, Tailgunner Joe, Cohn responded by writing a paperback book criticizing the movie for factual errors and defending McCarthy's anti-communist crusade.