Michael Cohen Has One Word of Advice for Trump Lawyers: ‘Run!’
“The big joke that’s out there now is that ‘MAGA’ really stands for ‘make attorneys get attorneys,’” Cohen said as reports indicate that Trump may soon become a defendant.
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Amid a looming potential indictment for Donald Trump over a 2016 hush-money payment that sent his former attorney Michael Cohen to prison, Trump’s ex-fixer urged his current lawyers to get as far from their client as possible.
During an interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes and Cohen, the names of several of Trump’s lawyers were mentioned, including Joe Tacopina, Alina Habba and Evan Corcoran. Tacopina has been speaking to the press about a potential indictment, which reportedly could come next week, while Habba and Corcoran are involved in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation. (A federal judge on Friday ordered Corcoran to provide more testimony in the Justice Department’s probe.)
“There are so many more people that are around [Trump] in terms of lawyers, that the big joke that’s out there now is that ‘MAGA’ really stands for ‘make attorneys get attorneys,’ and sadly that’s really the truth,” Cohen said.
Habba and Trump himself, Cohen pointed out, were fined nearly $1 million for a frivolous lawsuit targeting Hillary Clinton.
Hayes, after mentioning Cohen’s time in prison, asked if he had anything pertinent to say to Corcoran, Habba, or anyone “who is considering signing up for this assignment”—referring to an indictment if it should come.
Cohen first said they should recall his testimony before the House Oversight Committee in Feb. 2019.
“I turned around and I had said to both Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), ‘I know what you are doing, and I know the place that you are trying to run, because I wrote the playbook, and it didn’t work out well for me, and it’s not going to work out well for you,’” Cohen said.
“The smartest thing that a lawyer can do, if Donald Trump asks to represent him in this nightmare that he is going to be living: run!” Cohen urged. “Run as fast as you can—and don’t run to Florida, and especially not Palm Beach. Run someplace east or west, but definitely don’t get involved with Donald. That’s what I would say.”