LOS ANGELES (KNX) – On Thursday, former President Donald Trump made history as being the first former sitting president to be indicted on criminal charges.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, said on KNX News that the indictment marked “a sad day in America”, before calling his former boss’ behavior “grotesque.”
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump for his alleged involvement in a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels to prevent her from publicly discussing a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump years prior. The alleged payments were made during the 2016 presidential election.
“He’s going ahead and he’s trying to incite violence and fear and witness intimidation and judge intimidation and jury intimidation by and through not only his own actions on social media platform but also through his representatives that seem to be parroting the things he’s saying,” he said.
While the former president is expected to surrender in New York Tuesday afternoon, Cohen said he would not be surprised if the judge took additional action against the former president.
“I wouldn’t be shocked to see the judge put a semi-gag order on the guy, which is going to be absolutely impossible for him to abide by,” he said.
Cohen, who in 2017 called himself “the guy who would take a bullet for the president”, reflected on his 2018 prison sentencing after he plead guilty to tax evasion, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and campaign finance violations.
“I did what I did and I owned my culpability,” he said.
Then, he claimed he was told to plead guilty.
"I was told that I had to plead guilty. The first time I spoke with the southern district of New York that I had to plead guilty on a Monday and it was told to be Friday at 5:30 P.M. or they were filing an 80-page indictment against my wife.”
Listen to Cohen’s full interview in the audio above.