Michael Cohen’s former lawyer, Lanny Davis, said former President Richard Nixon held the Constitution in higher regard than President Trump because he resigned as it appeared he would be impeached.
“Nixon respected the Constitution. I don’t think this man even understands the Constitution,” Davis told the Hill.TV on Friday.
“He was a lawyer who respected the Constitution. He did not defy the court order to turn over the tapes. He did not say the Justice Department is my law firm. He tried. He fired everyone and recognized you can’t get away with that,” he said. “So, Richard Nixon at least respected the Constitution. He deserved to be removed from office, but he at least understood the Constitution.”
Nixon resigned from office on Aug. 9, 1974. Had he not resigned, he would likely have been impeached and removed from office over his administration’s involvement in and attempted cover-up of the Watergate scandal.
Cohen, Trump’s former longtime lawyer, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for several crimes, including campaign finance violations.
Cohen admitted he arranged payments to two women who alleged they had affairs with Trump years ago. In pleading guilty, Cohen implicated the president, saying he made the payments at the direction of an individual widely known to be Trump “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.”
Cohen is also cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump’s former fixer spoke out in an interview broadcast Friday, claiming Trump knew the payments to the two women were wrong.
“First of all, nothing at the Trump Organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump. He directed me, as I said in my allocution and I said as well in the plea, he directed me to make the payments, he directed me to become involved in these matters,” Cohen said in the ABC interview.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, pinning any legal issues on Cohen and accusing his former lawyer of trying to embarrass him.
“What scared Michael Cohen, scares me, and scares a lot of Americans, even those that didn’t much like Hillary Clinton and didn’t vote for her, is that [Trump] is a man who doesn’t care about the boundaries of the rule of law and our Constitution,” Davis said. “He doesn’t care about lying, we know that, and that’s frightening.”
