'This dude has all the tapes': Tom Arnold says he and Michael Cohen are teaming up to take down Trump
- Comedian Tom Arnold says he's teaming up with President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, to take down the president.
- Arnold tweeted a photo with Cohen on Thursday night. Cohen retweeted it.
- The two met up at the Loews Regency Hotel in Manhattan.
Comedian Tom Arnold says he's teaming up with President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to take down the president, in what appeared to be another in a line of signals Cohen has sent to Trump in recent days.
Arnold is working on a Vice show "The Hunt for Trump Tapes." It features Arnold hunting for unsavory recordings of the president. The idea for the show was sparked by the release of the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape prior to the presidential election, on which Trump was heard boasting of groping women.
The comedian told NBC News on Friday that Cohen - who is under criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York on suspicion of campaign-finance violations, bank fraud, wire fraud, illegal lobbying, and more - spoke with him for the show, which is expected to air later in the year.
"We've been on the other side of the table and now we're on the same side," Arnold told NBC News. "It's on! I hope he [Trump] sees the picture of me and Michael Cohen and it haunts his dreams."
Arnold tweeted a photo, which Cohen retweeted, that was captioned "I love New York."
Cohen declined to comment to NBC. Arnold said he met with Cohen at the Loews Regency Hotel in Manhattan. He did not say whether Cohen planned to give him tapes of conversations with Trump.
"This dude has all the tapes - this dude has everything," Arnold said. "I say to Michael, 'Guess what? We're taking Trump down together, and he's so tired he's like, 'OK,' and his wife is like, 'OK, f--- Trump.'"
Arnold said Cohen was being betrayed by the president.
"Michael Cohen showed up and worked diligently above and beyond and sacrificed and Donald Trump is like I don't even know who he is," Arnold said. "You think Michael doesn't notice that?"
'If they want information on Trump, he's willing to give it'
The incident is the latest in what's been a whirlwind week of signals from Cohen and his associates to Trump.
On Tuesday, Cohen hired Guy Petrillo as the latest lawyer representing him the criminal investigation. Petrillo, a partner at Petrillo Klein & Boxer, has extensive experience in the district. Experts told Business Insider that Petrillo was the kind of attorney you would hire if you were looking to cut a deal in such a case.
Later that day, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had frequently told his friends in recent months that he was frustrated Trump hadn't offered to pay his legal bills. Those fees are "bankrupting" Cohen, the report said, and Cohen believes Trump owes him for his years of loyalty.
Meanwhile, one of Cohen's New York associates told CNN that the lawyer "knows a lot of things about the president and he's not averse to talking in the right situation."
"If they want information on Trump, he's willing to give it," the person said.
On Wednesday, Cohen resigned from his post on the Republican National Committee. In a letter Cohen wrote to the RNC's chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, Cohen criticized the president's much-maligned family-separation policy at the US-Mexico border in a rare rebuke of his old boss.
"As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart wrenching," Cohen wrote. "While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips."
Experts said it looked like Cohen was sending up flares to his old boss.
"He may be trying to send a message to Trump that he is prepared to cooperate unless....." the Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who often speaks with Trump, told Business Insider.