Cohen on Trump indictment: ‘Donald will throw anyone and everyone under the bus’
Michael Cohen arrives at the district attorney's office to testify before a grand jury in New York, Monday, March 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Michael Cohen, a onetime attorney of former President Trump, said on Saturday that Trump will “throw anyone and everyone under the bus,” after an unsealed indictment alleged that he misled his lawyer about the classified documents that remained in his possession.
“Donald will throw anyone and everyone under the bus in order to preserve his own freedom, in order to benefit himself,” Cohen said in an interview with MSNBC’s Katie Phang.
The indictment detailed the former president’s interactions with several of his lawyers, including “Trump Attorney 1,” which refers to Evan Corcoran, according to The Washington Post.
After meeting with Corcoran to discuss responding to a Justice Department subpoena, Trump aide Walter Nauta allegedly moved several boxes of documents back and forth between a storage room and the residence at Mar-a-Lago at the former president’s direction.
However, Trump and Nauta did not tell Corcoran, which the indictment alleges caused him and another attorney to falsely certify that they had fully responded to the subpoena.
Corcoran ultimately was forced to testify before the federal grand jury in the case, after a judge determined that there was sufficient evidence to suggest he provided legal advice in furtherance of a crime.
Cohen suggested on Saturday that Trump could have other documents stored away elsewhere.
“You need to sort of play that game. Where’s Waldo? Except it’s not Where’s Waldo. It’s Where’s Donald? And where are the top secret documents? he quipped. “Every single location that Donald went to, from the time that he left the White House to today needs to be examined.”
“And I said this also that he would use these documents almost as a Get Out of Jail Free card. He’ll use it in order to extort America. Well, it came true,” he added. “This is exactly what he’s doing. You need to go to every single location.”
Cohen, who previously served as Trump’s fixer, pleaded guilty to campaign financial violations in 2018 in connection with a hush money payment.
The $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, which sought to buy her silence about an alleged affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election, resulted in the former president’s first indictment in Manhattan this April.
“I’m glad that accountability is finally at Donald’s doorstep,” Cohen said at the time. “But at the end of the day, it’s a very sad day for America in the fact that he’s the first president in U.S. history to be indicted.”