Trump the day after: If you’re looking for a lawyer, don’t hire Cohen

President Trump on Wednesday said he would not recommend the services of Michael Cohen to potential clients, offering his first public comments about his former personal attorney since Cohen pleaded guilty and implicated the president in Manhattan court.

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“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump tweeted.

If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018

Cohen on Tuesday pleaded guilty to bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance law violations in the Southern District of New York.

While reviewing the charges, Cohen told the judge that he made two six-figure payments to women at the direction of a candidate for federal office, all-but implicating the president. 

Cohen did not refer to Trump by name at any point during the proceedings, but his comments match the accounts of payments to adult-film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both women have said they were paid to remain quiet about alleged affairs with the president.

Trump did not specifically comment on Cohen’s case during a Tuesday night rally in West Virginia, nor did he explicitly mention the conviction of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in a Virginia courthouse that same afternoon.

“Fake news and the Russian witch hunt. We’ve got a whole big combination,” he said during the rally in Charleston, W.Va. “Where is the collusion? You know they’re still looking for collusion. Where is the collusion? Find some collusion. We want to find the collusion.”

Cohen, who said last September he would “take a bullet” for the president, spent years working for the Trump Organization, and until recently served as the deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, on Tuesday said that Cohen would be willing to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump’s tone toward Cohen has steadily shifted in recent months. He called an FBI raid on his ex-lawyers home and office in April an “attack on our country,” and later ripped The New York Times over a report that suggested Cohen would cooperate with prosecutors.

“Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and dishonest media!” Trump tweeted.

Cohen signaled in recent weeks a willingness to work with investigators, however. He told ABC in an interview last month that his “first loyalty” is to his family and country, not the president.

It was later revealed Cohen had recorded a conversation with Trump about possibly purchasing the rights to the story of a woman who claims she had an affair with the president.

Trump’s current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, launched a wave of attacks on Cohen’s credibility in response to the recording, calling him a “pathological liar,” and the president expressed surprise at the recording.

“What kind of lawyer would tape a client?” Trump tweeted. “So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?”

Updated at 9:37 a.m.