- Trump was terrified of being hit in the face with a cream pie, his former attorney said.
Michael Cohen said Trump "always brought up" being pied until he got Secret Service protection.
President
Cohen is a witness in a 2015 lawsuit brought by several protesters who say Trump's private security guards attacked them outside Trump Tower in New York City in September 2015.
In recent testimony, Cohen said under oath that Trump was obsessed with being cream-pied and ordered his security and aides on high alert after seeing Microsoft founder Bill Gates subject to the prank.
"That upset Mr. Trump terribly. We were all instructed [by Trump] that if somebody was to ever throw anything at him, that if that person didn't end up in the hospital, we'd all be fired," Cohen said, per The Daily Beast.
In a subsequent interview with the outlet, Cohen said: "It wasn't just one time. It was an ongoing and regular thing. As he would go out to various different open venues, he would always remind Keith [Schiller, Trump's head of security] to keep his eyes open."
"He never would turn around and say, 'If anyone throws a rock or a bottle…' It's always a pie. He always brought up that pie thing."
Cohen added that Trump's fears of being pied calmed when he won the 2016 election and got a Secret Service detail.
Cohen recently testified in the case that he witnessed Schiller telling Trump that he hit a protester outside Trump Tower "across the side of the head" to which Trump responded "good," The Daily Beast reported.
Schiller is accused of punching lead plaintiff Efrain Galicia in the head after stealing his sign. The moment was caught on camera by local cable news channel NY1.
Cohen said he heard Trump tell Schiller to "get rid of them." Trump denies telling his security to use force.
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.