Michael Cohen warns co-defendants in election case: "Donald doesn’t care about you"

During an MSNBC interview, the former Trump attorney highlighted the dangers of cooperating with prosecutors

By Kelly McClure

Nights & Weekends Editor

Published August 26, 2023 4:48PM (EDT)

Michael Cohen and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)
Michael Cohen and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

In an MSNBC interview on Saturday, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen issued a warning to the 18 co-defendants in Trump's 2020 election case. Based on his own experience working with (and against) the former president, he offered first-hand knowledge of what could happen in a case where someone previously on Trump's "side" decides to put themselves first.

"If any one of them ends up turning, it's destruction for the rest," Cohen said. "Donald doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about you one bit. He will use you as the scapegoat and the system will use you as the scapegoat in order to get somebody."

Using himself repeatedly as an example, he went on to say, "[Prosecutors] will get them to turn, because these three could easily end up in the same situation that I ended up. And I can promise you something, it's not fun. Exactly what happened to me is going to happen to all 18 of the co-indicted defendants." The three people he's referring to here are Trump's attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

As The Hill highlights in their coverage of the interview, "Cohen himself turned on Trump, cooperating with New York prosecutors investigating falsified business records related to hush money payments for Trump's alleged affairs. Once one of the former president's closest confidants, he has since become one of his loudest critics."


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