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President Donald Trump attacked Michael Cohen, his former lawyer, in an unsubtle tweet Wednesday, a day after Cohen pled guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations and claimed he made hush-money payments to women at Trump’s direction.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump wrote.
Cohen said in his plea that he had paid two women, apparently porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, “at the direction” of an unnamed candidate in 2016 — meaning Trump — and that a $150,000 payment in August 2016 was for the “principal purpose of influencing” the 2016 presidential election. Both Daniels and McDougal have said they had sexual relationships with Trump. Asked if he knew that what he did was illegal, Cohen told the court yes.
In another tweet, later Wednesday morning, the president suggested that Cohen’s admitted campaign finance violations “are not a crime.”
“Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime,” he tweeted. Trump added that “President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!” — an apparent reference to a $375,000 fine levied by the Federal Election Commission in 2013 against Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign for failing to report more than 1,000 contributions.
Trump’s tweets came hours after Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, told NBC’s “Today” that his client would not accept a pardon from the president and is willing to share additional information about his former boss with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Moments later, Trump tweeted about another former associate who was dealt a huge legal blow on Tuesday: Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, who was found guilty on eight felony counts by a federal jury in Virginia.
“I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,” Trump wrote, before using the case to take another shot at Cohen.
“‘Justice’ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ – make up stories in order to get a ‘deal,'” Trump wrote.
“Such respect for a brave man!” he added, before tweeting that “A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided.”
“Witch Hunt!” he wrote.
Manafort was found guilty on five counts of tax fraud, one count of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, and two counts of bank fraud.
The judge declared a mistrial on the 10 other charges he faced: three counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, and seven counts of bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy.
Manafort faces an estimated seven to nine years in prison.