Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, spoke to Erin Burnett on CNN’s "Out Front" Saturday to discuss his thoughts and concerns regarding Trump’s guilty verdict.
Cohen, who claims he went to prison in 2019 to protect Trump, told Burnett that "prison takes your soul," suggesting it's only fair that the roles be reversed now that the preemptive GOP nominee could be headed in that direction.
"I would like for him to experience what I felt,” Cohen said. “I would like for him to experience what 51 days of solitary confinement feels like."
Cohen went on to express more of his views on the matter, saying that “out of respect for the office of the presidency,” and based on his characterization of Judge Merchan as a “solomonian” judge, Trump’s punishment might not be wearing an orange jumpsuit while locked away behind impenetrable walls.
Instead, he predicts that the former president will probably be put under “strict” home confinement, "where it’s the same as being there. You’re not going to have access to the internet, people don’t just come in-come out. The only difference is he’ll have his own food."
Cohen continued that his true concerns extend well beyond his desire to see Trump go to prison. He explained that the former president would often divulge information he wasn’t supposed to, including national security secrets, despite being warned against doing so during his four-year presidency.
Burnett quickly pivoted from Cohen’s doomsday monologue and asked him if President Biden should pardon the former president, which Cohen vehemently disagreed with.
“I think that the country deserves to know that no one is above the law,” Cohen said. “And that includes a rogue former president who has done everything, everything, to violate the constitution —the very document that is the foundation of our democracy.”
During his Saturday interview on MSNBC’s "The Weekend," Cohen reiterated the same fears he shared with Burnett, saying, "You have now a Republican-leading candidate who is a felon, who is going to be debriefed on national security issues, knowing how loosely lipped he is…”
“My concern is, in a prison situation, he's willing to give away these secrets for a bag of tuna or a book of stamps. And he will do it, because he doesn't care," Cohen says. "If America turns against him, he'd rather see America burn to the ground. And that's who Donald Trump is."
