Conservative attorney George Conway had a warning message for former President Donald Trump on MSNBC Friday: don’t pin all your hopes in the Manhattan criminal hush money trial on discrediting your former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.
Cohen, who has said he helped broker the payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, has some drawbacks as a witness — in particular, Trump’s defense plans to capitalize on the fact that he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress — but there are some key reasons that may backfire, said Conway.
“I think that Trump defense and the Trump campaign and Donald Trump are making a huge mistake in going after Michael Cohen the way they have,” said Conway. “Obviously, they feel the need to. It fills an emotional need for Donald Trump, but it does not really help him. Because the fact of the matter is, what he was doing that he now fully admits… in very consistent terms was wrong, Michael, you know, Michael did that for Donald Trump. He did that for the benefit of and at the direction of Donald Trump. And every bit of testimony that has come out shows that Michael Cohen has come clean and is telling the truth about that.”
When they get him on the stand, said Conway, “They’re going to go after them, say well, you submitted this form, whatever, they’re going to go through all sorts of stuff. It’s like, so what, tell me what it is that Michael is lying about on this witness stand that relates to this case? And they got nothing. Because he’s been corroborated by [David] Pecker, corroborated by his banker, corroborated by the texts. He’s been corroborated by the tapes he recorded of Donald Trump. He’s been corroborated by Hope Hicks, and there’s been stuff in there that people didn’t like dealing with Michael.”
“I have known Michael since 2006,” Conway continued. “He’s a hard driving, loud guy. A New Yorker, and he was like a bull in a china shop. Or a dog with a bone. pick your metaphor. And when he goes in a certain direction, you know, he doesn’t let anything get in his way. And he did that for Donald Trump because that’s what he was loyal to Donald Trump, and he got screwed for it. And now he’s owned up to it. And I think, you know, if Michael Cohen goes on that witness stand and just, you know, chills and just sort of plays it straight and doesn’t let them get on his nerves, the defense, which is going to be their tactic — their tactic is going to be what everyone else’s tactic to Donald Trump is, provoke him.”
That isn’t going to be very effective, Conway said, because Cohen “has the truth on his side.”
“I think a lot of people are going to be surprised at how good a witness Michael is, because he was a great witness out on Capitol Hill, and he was a good witness, Judge [Arthur] Engoron said he told the truth in the civil trial,” he added. “I think that they — I think the Trump people should actually be pretty terrified of Michael Cohen. This is Michael Cohen’s chance to set it all straight. To set it all straight with Donald Trump, and the way he does that is just by going with the flow, you know, admitting the stuff he did wrong, and just sticking to the facts. He’s a smart enough guy that he’s going to do that. I think people are going to be surprised by that.”
