Ex-fixer Michael Cohen makes scathing attack video, says Trump thinks Americans are 'gullible fools'

Ex-fixer Michael Cohen makes scathing attack video, says Trump thinks Americans are 'gullible fools'

National Post

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For years, he acted as Donald Trump’s “fixer” and personal lawyer — the U.S. president’s go to man in times of crisis. But now Michael Cohen, in home detention after a stint in a U.S. prison, has released a video in which he eviscerates his former boss, urging Americans not to trust him in the upcoming election.

Business Insider reports that as the Republican convention was getting underway on Monday, Cohen was seen in the advert for Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century saying:

“For more than a decade, I was President Trump’s right-hand man, fixer, and confidant. I was complicit in helping conceal the real Donald Trump. I was part of creating an illusion.”

“I’m here to tell you he can’t be trusted — and you shouldn’t believe a word he utters,” Cohen says in the clip, telling viewers that Trump will “blatantly lie.” Cohen indicates that he, of all people, should know this, and says Trump thinks the American people are a “bunch of fools.”

“I was a part of it, and I fell for it,” he says. “I’m here to tell you he can’t be trusted, and you shouldn’t believe a word he utters. If you think he cares about working class Americans, you’re dead wrong.”

Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. He pleaded guilty in August 2018 to crimes including orchestrating ‘hush money’ payments before the 2016 election to women who had said they had sexual encounters with Trump.

Cohen also pleaded guilty in November 2018 to lying to Congress about negotiations concerning a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow, a project that never materialized. He said Trump implicitly directed him to lie about the project.

Trump has denied those allegations.

In recent times, Cohen has become increasingly outspoken against his former boss, but the video brought this animosity a step further. Cohen goes on in the clip: “When you watch the president this week, remember this: If he says something is huge, it’s probably small. If he says something will work, it probably won’t.”

Cohen adds, at times grimacing towards the camera, that “virtually everyone who worked for his campaign has been convicted of a crime or is under indictment — myself included.”

“You don’t have to like me, but please, listen to me,” Cohen concludes.

At present, New York is investigating whether Trump’s company falsely reported the value of his assets to secure loans and get tax benefits as claimed last year by Cohen.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday that she took legal action to enforce seven subpoenas seeking thousands of documents and testimony from multiple witnesses. They include Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, who refused to show up for a subpoena interview last month, she said.

The investigation is looking into transactions involving a neo-Gothic Trump skyscraper in Manhattan called 40 Wall Street, as well as the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago and a Los Angeles golf club, court records show.

Cohen triggered the probe after he handed Congress a series of Trump financial records from 2011 to 2013, New York said in a filing in state court in Manhattan.

— with files from Reuters and Bloomberg

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