On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "The Beat," former Donald Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen suggested that his former boss is facing far larger penalties in New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit than has been reported.
Cohen, who previously served time in prison for bank and tax fraud as a result of a hush payment he brokered for Trump, argued that the former president could ultimately be on the hook for as much as $1 billion as a result of his systematic falsification of his business records to inflate and deflate his assets as needed with banks and government agencies.
"I think Tish James is fantastic," said Cohen. "I think she is an incredible attorney general, and an attorney general that I wish every single state in this country had. I actually wish [Manhattan DA] Alvin Bragg had been a little more Tish James. Though I'm going give Alvin a little bit of leeway as we now in October have the case against the Trump Organization ... you cannot separate the Trump Organization from Donald."
"Knowing him well, where do you think his head and emotions are at today, when he sees the prospect that he could really be booted from New York business, not him or his kids able to run any business here?" asked anchor Ari Melber.
Cohen replied that being prohibited from running New York businesses is not the main issue for Trump — rather, "it's the loss of what will be the money."
"One of the things you talked about at the beginning, she's seeking $250 million. That's not accurate," said Cohen. What she said was the baseline of $250 million. Knowing the documents the way I do and knowing exactly the fraud that was going on, I see the number between $750 million and $1 billion."