Donald Trump’s own former personal attorney and self-described “fixer,” Michael Cohen, has long been pegged as the now ex-president’s “sworn enemy” — and now he’s slated to serve as a key witness in his former boss’ upcoming hush money trial and one MSNBC legal analyst says Donald Trump “will stop at nothing” to destroy him.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Deadline White House” to discuss the scandal-ridden, 91-time indicted former president’s upcoming court trial in the infamous Manhattan hush-money case, Lisa Rubin took a moment to remind viewers of Trump’s belief in “the importance of Michael Cohen.”
Rubin cited the former president’s $355 million fraud case that he recently in Manhattan civil court and, more specifically, the overinflated importance that Trump and his legal team tried to put on Michael Cohen’s credibility (or, lack thereof, from their vantage point) as a witness in the case.
“Trump’s folks said at this last trial that … Cohen ‘was the star witness,'” the MSNBC legal analyst explained. “That oversells Cohen’s importance in that case. There was so much documentary evidence, so much so that Judge [Arthur] Engoron at one point said the amount of evidence they have could fill this courtroom.”
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MSNBC host Alicia Menendez questioned whether concerns surrounding Cohen’s credibility would come around to haunt him again in the notorious hush-money case.
“Yes and no,” Rubin answered, before going on to explain that the seeds of doubt concerning Cohen’s credibility will likely impact the way the judge and and the defense handle Cohen, but ultimately, Judge Arthur Engoron saw the former Trump attorney as a credible witness in the civil fraud case, suggesting that the judge in the hush-money case will work on that precedent as see Cohen as a credible witness as well.
“I saw someone honest, relaxed,” Rubin said of the testimony Cohen gave in Trump’s fraud trial. “Does that matter to Donald Trump? Not one bit. Michael Cohen is his sworn enemy. He will stop at nothing to destroy his credibility. He will continue to accuse him of lying on the stand, and that will be a particularly rough cross-examination.”
Cohen has echoed similar sentiments in regard to Donald Trump’s vendetta for revenge against him, pointing to his own time behind bars for making those infamous payments to Stormy Daniels, despite his assertions that he was only ever working as the middleman for Donald Trump.
In his book, Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice Against His Critics, Cohen openly accuses the now-former president of harnessing the powers of the Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons to try to intimidate his former personal attorney into fear and, ultimately, silence.
Cohen spoke to MSNBC host Alicia Mendez over the weekend, and spoke in depth about the ways that Trump and his people continue to try to go after his credibility as a witness — but pointed to a statement made by Engoron, in which the judge said Cohen had more credibility in testifying than the likes of Donald Trump Jr. or Allen Weisselberg.
Cohen explained: “Remember, I have testified before seven congressional committees, the [Robert] Mueller team, the Manhattan district attorney, the attorney general, been on the grand jury, on the trial for that case and soon to be on the witness stand for the Manhattan D.A. case. I’ve continuously told the same story, and the story is a truthful story. All of my information is predicated both on documentary evidence and corroboration from others.”
Rubin went on to warn that Judge Juan Merchan, who’s presiding over the Manhattan hush-money case, is known for being no-nonsense, much along the lines of Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over E. Jean Carroll’s judgment against the former president.
You can watch the clip of the MSNBC segment here:
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
