Michael Cohen, the ex-personal lawyer of former President Trump, suggested Trump attacks those involved in his criminal cases in order to “fuel up his supporters” to do the same.
“His goal is to fuel up his supporters … for the sole purpose of getting them to act no differently and as stupidly as they did on Jan. 6,” Cohen said Friday in an appearance on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut.”
“His goal is to get them to attack these individuals, these critics of him as often and as frequently as they possibly can, whether it’s going to be on social media, whether it’ll be through phone calls, whether it will be in person,” he told host Joy Reid. “I mean, that’s his goal. Intimidation and witness– it’s witness intimidation and it’s harassment.”
His remarks come just days after Trump levied attacks against Judge Juan Merchan — who is overseeing his case related to a hush money payment paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 — and his daughter. The former president has also lashed out at Daniels and Cohen, who made the payment in question in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair.
Trump, who is the presumptive GOP nominee for the White House, also blasted Merchan for issuing a gag order Tuesday in the case, barring him from making statements about witnesses, other prosecutors, court staff and their family members “if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with” the case.
The order does not, however, apply to the judge and his family. Prosecutors in the case argued Friday that the gag order should covers the judge’s daughter. The gag order was issued weeks before Trump’s trial, the first for a former president in U.S. history, is scheduled to begin on April 15.
Cohen signaled that Trump is afraid to lose the case, or any of his upcoming trials. He also alluded to two recent cases that ended with hefty fines on the former president.
“Is Donald afraid of this upcoming Manhattan DA case, the Alvin Bragg case, absolutely,” Cohen said. “It’s not even scared, it’s petrified. He has seen right now losses in every single case that he has been on over the last two, three years, whether it’s the E. Jean Carroll case or the New York Attorney General case.”
To that end, Trump’s former fixer said he believes the only method the former president’s team thinks they have of avoiding a criminal conviction is to attack him and others.
“The only method that they think they have to keep him out of a criminal conviction in this case is to try to disparage, denigrate, harass, intimidate me, either so I don’t show up…,” Cohen said, who made it clear that he “didn’t ask to be a witness in this case.”
“I’m subpoenaed,” he continued. “Things are getting out of control, the amount of death threats that I’ve gotten after the post that he put out there, the hate on social media that I am receiving from his supporters has intensified after that post.”
He added that it’s imperative that something is done to protect all the witnesses involved in the case.
“I think it’s incumbent upon the Manhattan DA, along with whatever Judge Merchan is capable of doing, to protect not just staff, not just his own child, but all the witnesses that are being eng asked to testify,” Cohen said.
Bragg charged Trump last year with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursements to Cohen for making the hush money payment.
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