How Trump paying Cohen and Weisselberg's legal fees could lead to extortion problems: reporter

Legendary reporter and Trump foe Kurt Eichenwald noted that one of the biggest mistakes Donald Trump made with Michael Cohen could come back to bite him.

When Cohen was first indicted, he recalls the Trump family wrapping their arms around him. He was promised that all of his legal fees would be taken care of. "You are family," he was told. But after a while, Cohen realized it would come down to him or Trump and he abandoned the president. That's when Trump stopped paying his legal fees.

As Eichenwald explained, if Trump does the same thing with Weisselberg, it could add an extortion charge to Trump.

"Here's the fun part of the upcoming Trump Org/Weisselberg charges, which will bring @MichaelCohen212 particular delight: Trump Organization execs have contracts which require [the] company to pay their legal fees for [business] related cases," tweeted Eichenwald. "As soon as Cohen turned on Trump, [the] company cut him off and forced him to pay his own legal fees (making it a form of extortion). If [the] Trump Organization continues to pay Weisselberg's legal fees so long as he doesn't flip, prosecutors can argue, based on Cohen precedent, that this constitutes a bribe to keep execs silent & demand payments ended."