Michael Cohen Struggles Answering Whether He Knew He Broke the Law for Trump: ‘Yes and No’
Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen faced a brief grilling on MSNBC on Saturday from Yasmin Vossoughian over how involved he was in Trump allegedly inflating his assets.
Cohen has praised New York Attorney General Letitia James‘s civil lawsuit against Trump and three of his children, claiming they overvalued assets by a great margin.
Appearing on MSNBC, Cohen appeared to confirm these accusations by claiming when he worked for Trump, the real estate mogul would inflate assets to appear richer than he was. On top of the financial benefits that could come from overvaluations, Cohen also claimed his former boss cared about perception, saying at one point “Forbes was the goal.”
While discussing the allegations, Vossoughian asked Cohen point blank if he was knew he was involved in financial crimes and why he wouldn’t say something at the time.
“Was there ever a moment in which you said, Donald, what are we doing here? We’re breaking the law. How did you continue to do this and support this really?” she asked.
Cohen noted he’d gone through his part in the Trump organization “extensively” with officials — he previously pled guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations. He ultimately said he just did what his boss told him to do.
“Why I went ahead and I did it? Because my boss tasked me to do it,” Cohen said.
“You were breaking the law. You knew it, right? You knew it,” Vossoughian pushed.
“I’m not the one who is providing the documents. I knew it was wrong. I knew the numbers were wrong —” Cohen began before Vossoughian jumped back in.
“You knew it was financial fraud?” she asked.
“Yes and no,” Cohen said.
Cohen was then asked if he knew of accusation made in the lawsuit that Trump claimed an apartment in Trump Tower was 30,0000 square feet when it was actually below 11,000.
Cohen proudly declared he didn’t know “that one” because he rarely traveled beyond the first floor of Trump Tower while working for Trump.
Watch above via MSNBC
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