As the New York District Attorney’s case against Donald Trump heats up, the former president’s former attorney Michael Cohen sat with “CNN This Morning” Wednesday to discuss where he thinks it’s all headed.
“I’ve said all along that I thought the DA’s case is by far the simplest to prove, and it is the most destructive to Donald Trump individually and to his business,” Cohen told Don Lemon, adding, “I think we’re going to see a lot of repercussions for Donald Trump.”
The “CNN This Morning” interview opened with Lemon giving a rundown of the former president’s current legal woes as they relate to the New York DA’s investigation surrounding hush payments to Stormy Daniels. Noting that he has pled the fifth and refused to speak over 400 times, Lemon asked Cohen what it’s all about.
“It’s expected,” Cohen said. “I mean, Donald cannot keep track of the lies that he tells, and so what better way to stop a fool from being deposed and hurting himself further than to tell him to plead the fifth at least 400 times.”
Reminding the morning audience what his own role was in the investigation – a role that led to him serving prison time and house arrest through the pandemic – Cohen recalled being contacted by David Pecker, ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, about Trump’s alleged sexual relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels and the actions that followed.
“Then again, right before the election, I was then asked by Donald to handle it with Allen Weisselberg,” Cohen said, nodding to the former CFO of the Trump Organization. “And what that really meant for me was to resolve it. And so I did, but I did it at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump.”
“A lot of this is centered on you, this reinvigorated investigation that you talk about,” Lemon said. He then asked what the former attorney’s interactions with the DA’s office have looked like so far.
Cohen confirmed he’s met with the DA 13 times.
“Most recently they asked for my cellphones because they wanted to be able to extract from it the voice recordings that I had had with Keith Davidson, former attorney to Stormy Daniels before Michael Avenatti, as well as a bunch of emails, text messages and so on. That way, it could be used as evidence, if, in fact, they proceed forward. Which, I would suspect they are.”
Lemon then asked Cohen point blank what Trump’s culpability is in the case: “Do you think he will face consequences for this investigation?”
“So, I’ve said all along that I thought the DA’s case is by far the simplest to prove, and it is the most destructive to Donald Trump individually and to his business, as well,” Cohen said. “I do believe that he will see repercussions for the first time in almost his entire life. We’ve seen quite a few cases now, whether it’s Weisselberg’s incarceration, whether it’s the 17 counts against the Trump Organization, and now with the Attorney General’s case, I think we’re going to see a lot of repercussions for Donald Trump.”
Watch a segment from Cohen’s “CNN This Morning” interview in the video above.