President Trump’s longtime legal adviser warned his former client that Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, could turn on him if Cohen is faced with criminal charges from federal prosecutors, according to a report Wednesday.
The president reached out to Jay Goldberg, his lawyer in the 1990s and early 2000s, for guidance on the recent fallout and criminal investigation involving his current lawyer. Goldberg told Trump in the phone call Friday that Cohen is not be trusted because he “will never stand up” for him if pressured by federal prosecutors, according to the Wall Street Journal.
During the 15-minute phone conversation Friday, Goldberg told the president that on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 representing Cohen fully protecting him before the government, Cohen “isn’t even a 1.”
Cohen is under investigation for possibly committing bank fraud and violating campaign finance rules. The FBI raided Cohen’s hotel room and office last week, and reportedly secured documents, including those concerning the $130,000 payment he made to Stormy Daniels, the adult film star with whom he signed a nondisclosure agreement in 2016 about her alleged extramarital affair with Trump 10 years prior.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is now going to court to fight the NDA, arguing it is invalid because Trump never signed it. Trump has denied such an affair ever took place.
Goldberg said the prospect of Cohen being compelled to testify in tandem with the documents obtained by the FBI poses a bigger threat to Trump than special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
