Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer who testified for the state in Trump’s criminal trial in New York this past spring, told MSNBC on Tuesday that he intends on leaving the country if his former boss—who has been threatening his opponents with prosecution—is elected president again.
“I’m already working on a foreign passport with a completely different name,” Cohen told Deadline: White House anchor Nicolle Wallace. “I don’t know how it’s going to work as far as dealing with my wife and my children. I certainly don’t want them moving to where I’m looking to go...”
Cohen, who has a daughter, Samantha, and son, Jake, added later when asked directly if he would leave the country: “I’d have no choice.”
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Cohen fell out of Trump’s orbit around 2018, when he was convicted of lying to Congress about Trump’s efforts to have a namesake tower built in Moscow, and has since been an outspoken critic. Trump, in many social media posts and other public comments, has left no doubt that he is no longer a fan of Cohen’s. And Cohen is clearly concerned about what powers Trump would have at his disposal to seek revenge.
Wallace mentioned that when Trump was president and Cohen had been released from prison early due to COVID-19 precautions in July 2020, he was re-apprehended and put in solitary confinement. Cohen alleged that this was “retaliation” for criticizing Trump, in part through a book manuscript. A federal judge agreed, and he was soon re-released.
Cohen is currently asking the Supreme Court to allow him to sue Trump for damages after a federal appeals court ruled against him.
Cohen said on MSNBC—as he told the Daily Beast in July—that the high court’s wildly expansive view of presidential power could give Trump the green light to go even further than before.
“How many people has [Trump] turned around and said that these are people that I intend to go after if I have the ability to? And the worst is the Supreme Court’s recent decision that gave him immunity, presidential immunity,” Cohen warned, not long after it was reported that Utah Sen. Mitt Romney is also concerned about his family’s safety if Trump wins. “Now he thinks it’s ‘Not only can I do whatever I want, but I can’t even be prosecuted.’ It’s a ‘Get out of jail free’ card solely for the president.”
Even with Trump out of office, Cohen is enduring frightening attacks by the former president’s allies.
Days after Trump was found guilty on all felony counts in his New York trial, Cohen’s family was doxxed by someone accusing him of having “betrayed Trump.”
“This is sort of the behavior that we are contending with simply because I testified,” Cohen told MSNBC then. “MAGA is unhappy with the results.”
