Michael Cohen has some harsh words for Rudy Giuliani
August 24, 2023
Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen couldn't believe that his former boss was still unwilling to put up money to help his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani with his legal fees.
Giuliani was booked into the Fulton County jail on Wednesday after being indicted along with 17 other people allegedly involved in a racketeering conspiracy.
Speaking to CNN's Brianna Keilar, Cohen confessed he was shocked that Trump refused to put up his own money to help Giuliani. Wednesday afternoon, TheNew York Times confirmed an invitation that was being posted on social media indicating Trump was hosting a fundraiser for Giuliani with $100,000 tickets.
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"What I do find interesting is that Rudy went to Mar-a-Lago with [lawyer] Bob Costello in order to make a plea for money," Cohen explained. "And interestingly enough, Donald is not putting up a dollar of his own money for Rudy's benefit, but, rather, he's going to host a fundraiser and ask other people to fund Rudy's legal fees, as opposed to, again, Donald doing it."
Giuliani has indicated he's running out of cash, with a donations campaign and recently putting his three-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan up for sale.
"Donald, at least, finally, smartened up a little bit and he realized the danger that Rudy could potentially put him in," Cohen continued. "And, so, at least he's doing something, so maybe he's not as dumb as I said the other night..."
Cohen offered Trump free legal advice through the airwaves on Monday, telling CNN's Kaitlan Collins that it was a bad idea to leave any lawyer out to fend for themselves after helping.
"There is never a reason for Donald that you can isolate and say, why is he paying, well, you know, for Don Jr., right, or for Kimberly 'gargoyle,'" Cohen said, referring to Guilfoyle. "But we don't know as to why not for Jenna Ellis. Why not for Rudy Giuliani? Donald is an idiot. Let me be very clear when it comes to paying money, he is truly an idiot. He has not learned yet that the last person you want — three people you don't want to throw under the bus like that, your lawyer, your doctor, and your mechanic. Because one way or the other you're going to go down the hill and there will be no brakes. That's the problem."
Cohen writes in his books Disloyal and Revenge about staying loyal to Trump until it became very clear that Trump wasn't going to stay loyal to him. Cohen flipped, testifying before the House Oversight Committee about his knowledge of the inner workings of Trump's life and business. He hasn't stopped speaking out since.
"I know what he's capable of," Cohen told Trump's co-defendants speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace last week. "I know what has happened to me and, rest assured, what's happened to me will happen to you, if you don't smarten up."
Cohen recalled that when Trump was paying his legal fees the two entered into a joint defense agreement. When Trump ended it, he gave Cohen every incentive to tell the prosecutors everything and come clean.
Before leaving for Atlanta, Giuliani claimed that the charges "destroy the right to counsel," by attacking lawyers who allegedly helped Trump try and overthrow the Georgia election in 2020.
Keilar noted that there have been plenty of lawyers who have been arrested, including in the Watergate scandal and Cohen himself. She asked what Cohen thought Trump saw when watching Giuliani speak out on Wednesday.
Cohen said that Giuliani isn't the same person that he was just 20 years ago, going from "America's mayor" to "America's fool."
"Sadly, that's how Donald sees him," Cohen explained. "He doesn't see him as —he's the former mayor who did so many good things, but rather the dopey Rudy Giuliani with the hair dye running down the side of his face in the Four Seasons [Total Landscaping] parking lot."
He went on to say that with Trump someone only has to say or do one thing that is wrong, and he'll forget about everything else that has ever been done for him and walk away.
"So, the smartest thing Rudy can do is not invoke Donald's name, and, in fact, stop with the press conferences because each time that he does it he makes a bigger fool out of himself," Cohen said.
He closed by saying that the "IT guy" who worked at Mar-a-Lago is "finally the smart one out of the group" for abandoning his Trump lawyer and revealing the truth about what happened with the White House documents.
"He understands that Donald is going to throw each and every one of these individuals under the bus in order to protect himself," said Cohen. "Starting with Rudy, going to Jenna Ellis, going to Sidney Powell. He's going to throw each and every one of them under the bus to save himself."
He noted that what Yuscil Taveras revealed to the federal prosecutors by coming clean is that there was a coordinated effort to lie to the grand jury. Whatever else he told the special counsel is unknown.
See Cohen in the video below or at the link here.