Trump's a Svengali mind-warping many in his orbit to do deviance.
That's the takeaway from George Conway, a conservative attorney who is part of the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, who appeared on CNN's "The Source" with Kaitlan Collins to stew on how former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and others can continue to do the ex-president's bidding even if it lands them on the wrong side of the law.
"It's not surprising because that's what Donald Trump does to people," Conway said.
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He was referring to reporting from The New York Times that Weisselberg, who served about four months at Rikers Island for orchestrating a decade-long tax fraud scheme, is hashing out a plea deal with Manhattan prosecutors that would have him admit he committed perjury while testifying in the $370 million civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney Letitia James.
Conway believes Weisselberg is like many who have done The Don's bidding and lost.
"We've seen numerous circumstances where Trump has gotten people to lie or obstruct justice or perform illegal acts to protect him; even sometimes when he hasn't even asked them to do it," he said. "They understand what he wants them to do."
"You see all these people who were indicted, including his own Chief of Staff [Mark Meadows] at the White House in Georgia. We've seen Michael Cohen. We've seen Weisselberg previously... It's just Donald Trump is just a cloud of deception."
It's the methods that Trump espouses that breeds this kind of unsavory behavior, according to the attorney.
"He creates a culture of lying and deception and illegality wherever he goes," said Conway. "And if you are associated with him, you have to be very, very careful. You're taking a risk."
"I mean, there are lawyers who are losing their license, threatening — being threatened with losing their licenses for defending him. And it just — it never, ever stops with him."
"He asks, he expects people to do illegal things for him."
