The fixer saw his one-time boss and became comfortably numb.
"It wasn't until I took the seat by the judge's stand that I was confused on how I was gonna be," Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's one time "fixer" and attorney told CNN's Erin Barnett on "Out Front" during an appearance Wednesday night.
The disbarred attorney who was sentenced to serve three years in prison for tax evasion and making false statements to a federally insured bank, and campaign finance violations among other crimes — talked about the moment he came face to face with Trump while becoming an adversary having been a witness in the the former president's civil business fraud case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James.
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"...I felt nothing," Cohen said. "It was so weird that here I am sitting directly across from Donald Trump and felt absolutely nothing."
The same ambivalence came over him when he noticed Trump's son, Eric, seated in the gallery behind his dad.
All in all the disgraced attorney saw a once powerful figure cut down to size.
"I said to myself 'What a sad-looking, pathetic, deflated individual."
Cohen had admitted to carrying out a series of payouts to women who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump.
Trump contended their stories were untrue.
He was then pressed about cooking his boss's books and that he suspects Trump will be forced to pony up as much as $600 million in damages.
As for conflicting statements he made on the stand in the fraud trial this week and those made in 2019 before congressional testimony, Cohen tried to explain that he didn't lie and that it was a matter of decoding the "specific language" of how orders were issued while working for Trump.
Burnett then pressed Cohen to explain his role in exaggerating Trump's wealth.
"Donald Trump speaks like a mob boss... He'll say "You know, I'm not worth $5 billion. I'm worth $6 [billion]. Why don't you guys go and figure it out.'"
Cohen continued: "He directed us an order to do it," speaking about both he and the Trump Organization's longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg.
The only way to do it is to increase the value of the assets in that statement of financial condition.
"We did it."
Not only that but Cohen said he actually hand-delivered the marked up documents for Trump's green light.
"We then returned to his office, and it took a couple of days, with hand-marked-up documents for his approval...
Not only was it explicit -- there were some that he didn't think were high enough; that he felt we should go back and increase it there too."
