(The Hill) — Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s ex-personal attorney, said Tuesday he plans to flee the country if his former boss wins in November.
“I’m out of here. I mean, I’m already working on a foreign passport with a completely different name,” Cohen told MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace, when asked what he thinks will happen to him if Trump retakes the White House.
“I don’t know how it’s going to work, as far as dealing with my wife and my children,” he continued. “I certainly don’t want them moving to where I’m looking to go.”
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Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building on his way to Manhattan criminal court, Monday, May 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
The remarks came in a larger discussion around reporting from The New York Times describing some of the GOP nominee’s plans to prosecute his enemies if he returns to office. The Times named Cohen as someone on that list.
Cohen, in recent years, has made his way to the top of Trump’s enemy list, a stark reversal from his previous role as the former president’s fixer.
But the ex-attorney turned on his boss and served a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to federal campaign finance charges and other crimes. He maintains that he committed some of the crimes at Trump’s direction and testified to that effect as the star witness in the New York hush money case earlier this year.
The trial — centered on false business records related to a payment made around the 2016 election to silence a witness about an alleged affair with the former president — returned a guilty verdict, making Trump the first sitting or former president to be convicted in a criminal case.
Cohen said he is not the only person who should fear repercussion if Trump returns to power.
“Yourself, the president of MSNBC, General Milley, you know, Liz Cheney. How many people has he turned around and said that this is, that these are people that I intend to go after if I have the ability to?” he said, referring to the former Wyoming lawmaker and former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Cohen also lamented the recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, which he described as “the worst.”
“Now he thinks it’s, not only is it, ‘I can do whatever I want,’ but ‘I can’t even be prosecuted,’” Cohen said. “It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card solely for the president.”
The ruling determined that core presidential powers are immune from criminal prosecution, which was largely seen as a victory for Trump amid his legal battles.
