Politics- Michael Cohen said Trump likely feels "trapped" and "all alone" after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago.
- Cohen told CNN that whoever provided information to the feds "will continue to do so."
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, said that the former president is likely feeling "trapped" and "alone" after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He also said that Trump is most concerned that whoever tipped off the feds before they raided his home might have more incriminating information to share.
"One thing for certain, Donald is not so much concerned that the FBI came to Mar-a-Lago," Cohen told CNN in an interview that aired on Thursday. "What he's concerned about is he knows what information exists in the boxes that were taken."
"That's what's concerning him, that coupled with who is it that is providing the information, because right now he feels trapped," Cohen added. "He feels all alone, and he should. He should feel this way because rest assured, whatever the person that provided the feds with the information, they're willing to provide more."
Cohen continued, "They will continue to do so until ultimately — and one thing, you know, when the feds raid, usually what comes after that is an indictment and incarceration, and nobody knows that better than I."
Cohen served as Trump's personal lawyer and confidant for almost a decade and made headlines as one of his most loyal and aggressive attack dogs. That changed in 2018, when federal authorities raided his home and office as part of a criminal investigation into Trump's illegal hush-money payment to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
Though he initially pledged loyalty to Trump, Cohen changed his tune when he felt like Trump had abandoned him. He eventually pleaded guilty to multiple felonies, including tax evasion, campaign-finance violations, and bank fraud. He also later pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 and was released last November. Since pleading guilty, he has become one of Trump's harshest critics and is said to be cooperating in a number of criminal and civil investigations into his former boss.
Trump announced on Monday that the FBI executed a search warrant at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. In a lengthy statement, he accused the feds of "prosecutorial misconduct" and "political persecution." He added, "They even broke into my safe!"
It was initially unclear what the search warrant related to, but ABC News later cited sources that said it was related to 15 boxes of documents that Trump had moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago upon leaving office. The National Archives asked the Justice Department earlier this year to investigate whether Trump broke the law when he took the boxes, some of which contained classified information.
Sources told both Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal that an informant tipped off authorities that classified government documents may have been improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago. Rolling Stone reported that Trump's allies had started finger-pointing as they tried to figure out who was working with the feds.
Trump and his allies also suggested that the FBI planted evidence during the raid.
"Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting,'" Trump wrote on his social-media app, Truth Social. But Trump's own lawyer shot down these suggestions.
Cohen called that statement "reckless" and "despicable" in his CNN interview.