Lanny Davis spoke to NPR Wednesday morning about Michael Cohen’s guilty plea and plans moving forward.
USA Today reported that: “Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts Tuesday in a surprise hearing in New York that happened within an hour of a jury dropping a guilty verdict on eight counts in the trial against Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.”
Cohen admitted to charges of lying about his income to evade income taxes, lying to banks to obtain loans, and making illegal contributions to benefit Trump’s campaign. The contributions to Trump’s campaign were violations of campaign finance laws and were made by arranging payoffs to silence two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
The Washington Post added that: “Cohen is the fifth Trump associate to have pleaded guilty or be charged with criminal wrongdoing since Trump took office, including his former national security adviser, his deputy campaign chairman and a former campaign policy adviser.”
Tuesday evening Fox News‘ Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts tweeted an image of a statement by Michael Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, which read as follows:
Michael Cohen took this step today so that his family can move on to the next chapter. This is Michael fulfilling his promise made on July 2nd to put his family and country first and tell the truth about Donald Trump. Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t the be a crime for Donald Trump?
Roughly an hour later he posted the following bombshell tweet:
- Michael Cohen attorney Lanny Davis tells Fox News “This is just the beginning” and that Cohen will speak with any investigators (including Mueller) “to make sure the truth about Donald Trump gets out” [links edited for clarity]
Davis appeared on MSNBC and CNN on Tuesday and explained that Cohen was interested in speaking out about Trump, to include speaking with federal investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“Mr. Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest, and he’s more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows,” Davis told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Referring to the emails that were hacked from the Democratic National Committee and of top aides to political rival Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, he added that he could tell investigators “not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democratic system,” but also about his “knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time.”
WATCH: Lanny Davis, attorney for Michael Cohen, tells @maddow that his client has information that should be of interest to the special counsel and is "more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows." pic.twitter.com/zHfHkmj5dU
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 22, 2018
Following up Wednesday morning, Davis spoke with NPR’s Rachel Martin, telling her that Cohen isn’t interested in receiving a pardon.
“Under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump,” Davis said, adding that Trump “not only directed a crime, he’s part of a cover up.”
More from Cohen: "He (the President) not only directed a crime, he's part of a cover up."
Also this: "Under no circumstances would he (Cohen) accept a pardon from Mr. Trump."
— Rachel Martin (@rachelnpr) August 22, 2018
You must be logged in to post a comment Login