President Donald Trump's friend and former attorney Jay Goldberg told CNN that he cautioned against hiring former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. After watching Trump's lawyer, Goldberg realizes he was right.
In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Goldberg explained that he didn't think Giuliani would be a good defense attorney for Trump given his track record as a prosecutor.
"I didn't think he had knowledge of how to handle the case from the defense perspective," Goldberg told Burnett. "He was a long-time prosecutor. He didn't know how to set a case up for the possible impeachment of a witness such as [Michael] Cohen. Now, we don't know that Cohen would tell the truth. It's entirely likely that given precedent a person who was in Cohen's position would tell the government what he believes the government wants to hear. For Giuliani to say that he will tell the truth strips the defense of its main weapon of claiming that he is coloring his testimony to favor the government so he can get a letter of cooperation."
He went on to say that as soon as Giuliani spoke he knew the lawyer "was damaging Trump's case immeasurably."
"It ranks near 100 in terms of damage," he said. "In other words, the testimony would be, 'You're claiming that Mr. Cohen is not telling the truth. So, on a certain date, you said that Cohen would tell the truth and that he is an honorable person. And the jury would hear that. That would be terribly damaging to someone who is trying to impeach the credibility of Cohen. It's no defense oriented lawyer would say that."
Goldberg said that he has not talked to the president about these feelings since their initial conversation or since Giuliani has begun doing the rounds on cable news.
Watch the interview below:
