Michael Cohen got sweet payback on Todd Blanche, the attorney who defended convicted felon Donald Trump in his Manhattan hush money and election interference trial by branding him with a new nickname that has quickly gone viral on social media.
Speaking with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, Cohen was asked about a term Blanche used in his closing statement, calling Trump’s former fixer the GLOAT or “greatest liar of all time.”
Cohen responded, “It’s a Donald Trump fourth-grade playground bullying type of tactic.”
“I was going to call him a SLOAT, which is the stupidest lawyer of all time,” Cohen added. “You cannot listen to your client when you are trying to create a defense ― a defense that is as important as this one is.”
Michael Cohen responds to Todd Blanche's "G.L.O.A.T." insult with an acronym of his own: S.L.O.A.T. (Stupidest Lawyer Of All Time), for taking too much direction from Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/f6pUluqPYQ
Video of Cohen’s comments has been viewed on Twitter nearly 132,000 times in just a bit over 12 hours since it was first posted, along with plenty of comments of praise for him.
@MichaelCohen212 Great segment on MSNBC this evening. You look relieved that this is over. Wishing you and your family well on the next phase of your life journey. You deserve happiness and peace. All best, sir.
So you’re telling me his lawyer admitted Trump micromanaged his trial but tried to tell a jury he didn’t micromanage the hush money payments? 😂 He really is a SLOAT
At least six of the twelve jurors who will decide whether or not former president Donald Trump falsified business records and interfered in the 2016 election clearly believe his former attorney, Michael Cohen, and showed that during testimony on Tuesday, according to CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen.
“I was watching the jury and at different points in Cohen’s testimony, you had the jury [who] doesn’t always do this. I counted six jurors who were nodding or smiling, or agreeing with Cohen at one point in his testimony,” Eisen noted.
“It’s like a presidential debate: both sides want to suppress expectations and the DA did that brilliantly in setting this moment.”
Eisen later expanded on his televised comments in an op-ed for CNN.
“At that moment and at multiple points during the day, I saw something I had not seen before with any witness in this trial: Cohen was talking directly to the jury, and all the jurors were looking at and listening to him. It seemed to me that he had established a genuine human bond with the jury over the course of his lengthy direct examination.”
With the defense continuing to cross-examine Cohen this morning, Eisen also had some thoughts regarding today’s courtroom fireworks.
THIS IS THE KEY EXCHANGE OF THE TRIAL
Blanche is trying to rock Cohen with fact that he lied when he said at his plea that he was guilty of the tax crimes & has since said he was coerced & was not guilty
It’s going to require a lot more than $10,000 fines to keep failed ex- president Donald Trump from violating a court-imposed gag order, according to his former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen.
Cohen was a guest on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” Saturday, and he said the current gag order is far too lenient.
“Let me be clear about this. This was the most limited gag order that I’ve ever seen. It was so limited it was almost impossible to actually violate it if you’re anyone other than Donald Trump… he can’t help himself.”
Calling Trump a “petulant child,” Cohen explained why fines are not enough to make the former president keep his big mouth shut.
“You tell the child, you can go to the candy store that has 10,000 items. You have a peanut allergy, so you can’t eat peanut M&Ms. That’s all the kid wants, and he’s going to fight you, tooth and nail, until he gets what he wants. He doesn’t care about what the judge says. $10,000? He doesn’t care.”
So what can be done? Here’s Cohen’s suggestion:
“The only thing that’s going to stop him is if they actually say to him, you know what, next time you’re going to stay downstairs in the cell for the entire night. Don’t do it again. Because what the judge said to him, you are not only creating a hassle but what you’re doing is dangerous to my staff. And I won’t allow it.”
Would a single night in lockup be enough to keep Trump quiet? If not, the judge should tell him the next time his punishment will be a month behind bars.
Michael Cohen, who served as Donald Trump’s personal attorney for over a decade, says he believes his former client may attempt to share top-secret information with foreign countries if the Justice Department indicts him for violations of the Espionage Act.
Appearing on MSNBC Sunday, Cohen was asked by host Michael Steele:
“Based on everything you know about him, why do you think he wanted to keep those top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.”
Cohen responded:
“He’s gonna use it as a get out of jail free card. It’s a way to extort America turn around to say if you put me in jail, if you go after me — he’ll even say his children — I will have my loyal supporters who you do not know who has copies of information that may have been, and again this is my conjecture, that I would take those documents, I will release them to Iran, to China, to North Korea, to Russia.
“You want to take me down, I’ll take the whole country down.”
Cohen added:
“Remember, and I’ve said this with you 1000 times, Mike, Donald Trump doesn’t care about this country,” he continued. “He doesn’t care about anyone or anything other than himself.”
Based on Trump’s past actions and behavior, Cohen is probably correct. But if the failed, one-term president does indeed give away classified information to our adversaries, he needs to keep in mind that he could wind up like Ethel and Julius Rosenberg: On federal death row, waiting to be executed, and so can anyone who assists him.
Michael Cohen was Donald Trump’s personal attorney for many years, and he said Saturday on MSNBC that his ex-client must be terrified that someone close to him tipped off the FBI about him having classified and top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.
For all he knows, Cohen added, the informant could be his wife, Melania.
Cohen was asked by host Ali Velshi:
“How is he feeling right now because someone in his circle, or somebody around him that may not be a trusted advisor or something, but somebody around him who knows stuff about him is now an informant for the FBI. That much we know, the name’s been redacted so we don’t know who that is. What happens to Donald Trump when he feels that someone’s betraying him?”
Cohen replied:
“Yes this is a big problem for him because under normal circumstances quite a few people are around him. So he is able to shift to the next person. Here, he is not sure who he can shift to.
“He’s not sure if it’s Melania, he’s not sure if it’s one of the kids. Now you may remember, for over a year and a half, I’ve been saying that the whole issue with [Jared] Kushner to me just seems falsely odd in the fact that he who was secretary of everything in the White House, secretary of everything and that he seems to be escaping any sort of attention and , you know, any legal issues and so I’ve been saying for a long time, that just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
The former attorney added that he thinks the most likely suspect is indeed Jared:
“But, then again, it’s just my opinion. I personally have always thought that Kushner was the guy that would end up turning on his father-in-law first.”