Former President Donald Trump is launching a $500 million lawsuit against his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, alleging that he violated attorney-client privilege when he issued a tell-all book about the hush payment he helped Trump faciliate to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
But that claim doesn't make any sense for Trump, said former Manhattan prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo on CNN's "OutFront" on Wednesday — because it implicitly requires Trump to admit that everything Cohen said, which he is now denying by pleading not guilty to criminal charges against him in New York, is actually true.
"When you look at this, Trump is alleging that Michael Cohen broke attorney-client privilege, he's talking about all these falsehoods that he put out there," said anchor Erica Hill. "Is there a legal merit here? I mean, does he have a case?"
"It's an interesting case here because, on the one hand, he's saying everything is false, right?" said Agnifilo. "So if he was breaching attorney-client privilege, you're doing that by telling things that were said to you in confidence. But so, is he saying things that Michael Cohen is saying are true because I told him in confidence, and now he's breached that privilege? Or is he saying that the things are false? Because if they're false, why didn't he bring a defamation claim? So it kind of makes no sense."
"It really reads to me like he's just trying to put his defense in the criminal case out and try and get his statements out there in the court of public opinion."
She added: "I also think it's worth noting that there is a little bit of witness intimidation going on here as well. And he's just using the court system like he seems to want to do, by going after his foes and adversaries."
Cohen is expected to be star witness for the prosecution during a trial of Trump.
"When you say 'witness intimidation,' that was one of my thoughts," said Hill. "Is this perhaps, in some way, an attempt to silence Michael Cohen?"
"I think it's clear that it is," said Agnifilo. "I mean, he does this after he's been arrested after he has been charged, and he's basically calling — he has a whole section in there about all of Michael Cohen's lies and what a liar he is. I think he's really trying to intimidate him into not coming forward."
"...I think, to Michael Cohen and others who might want to come forward and give testimony in any situation against Donald Trump. It's a warning. It's, look what I'll do to you."
Karen Friedman Agnifilo says Trump accidentally admitted Michael Cohen is telling the truthwww.youtube.com
