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Michael Cohen: Alina Habba 'the last lawyer on the planet' who should be representing Trump
September 2, 2022 5:16AM ET
Michael Cohen testifying under oath before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (screengrab)
Longtime Donald Trump fixer Michael Cohen weighed in on Thursday on the latest developments during a tumultuous week of legal developments resulting from the FBI executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
CNN's Poppy Harlow reported, "one of Donald Trump's lawyers raising eyebrows by admitting that Mar-a-Lago guests are frequently in the same office that classified documents were found during the FBI's search."
"What do you think?" Harlow asked Cohen. "You were one of Trump's lawyers. Are you surprised to hear things like I just read from one of his attorneys?"
"Absolutely not," Cohen replied. "It's something I've been saying for a long time now, that place is completely open. It's directly above the catering hall. It's not just guests, it's not just members, it's anybody that is there hypothetically for a wedding or a christening, bar mitzvah, — any event they have. All that separated these individuals from top secret classified documents: ten stairs and one little master lock key."
Harlow noted the dramatically shifting defenses offered by Trump and his supporters, including attorney Alina Habba.
"Who do you think these defenses are coming from?" Harlow asked. "Trump or the legal team? What do you make of them?"
"It's originally coming from Trump," Cohen replied. "He directs them through a document, I'm sure. This is what I want you to say."
"Alina is possibly the last lawyer on the planet that should be out there right now defending this grotesque possession of national security secrets at Mar-a-Lago."
"It's what he did to you?" Harlow asked.
"It's what he did to everyone," Cohen responded. "These are your talking points. It's the same thing with the GOP members when I was testifying before the House Oversight Committee, 'use the following words, these are the talking points I want you to use.' Alina goes on -- she does the same thing that Donald is doing, that's spreading misinformation, disinformation, malinformation. She has no clue what she's talking about."
"How does she know how declassified documents look? Maybe she knows the inside of Trump's office," Cohen continued. "She has no clue when it comes to the DOJ. She's working in parking lots, not in the Justice Department. Then she makes all other sorts of allegations that he declassified them. Really? Show me, show me how you declassify them, everybody else that was around him at the time states that he did not."
Harlow noted Trump attorney Cristina Bobb was the "one who critically signed that Jun. 3 letter saying, 'all right, you know, DOJ, you have all the classified stuff.' That appears to be false."
"Does she need her own lawyer?" Harlow asked.
"100% she needs to lawyer up," Cohen replied.
"Here is the thing about Donald, what he did with her -- I'm sure because I have seen him do it 100 times. He tells you, 'there's nothing there, I sent everything back, I just need a lawyer to sign this.' She doesn't want to argue with the guy, it's Donald Trump, now former president. What did she do? She foolishly signed the document," Cohen said. "Now she's going to have to testify and explain exactly what she did in order to verify that these documents were no longer on the premises."
"She's going to have to turn around and say, 'I did it because Donald told me.' She has a right to rely upon her client's statement, but not when it's Donald Trump," he said. "The guy lies with impunity, I mean, the guy lies the way people breathe."
Cohen noted, "there's a plethora of lawyers that have all gone down or are going down or need to lawyer up simply because they did Donald Trump's bidding."
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