‘Next one to be thrown under the bus’: Michael Cohen issues ominous warning to Rudy Giuliani

After federal investigators raided Rudy Giuliani’s home and office, another former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, had a message for him.

“Rudy, I told you so! I told you so!” Mr Cohen told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Thursday.

“What I told him was that Donald Trump doesn’t care about anyone or anything, that he will be the next one to be thrown under the bus, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” he explained.

Federal investigators on Wednesday executed a search warrant on Mr Giuliani’s Manhattan office and apartment, seizing cell phones and computers. The raid is believed to be part of an investigation into whether Mr Giuliani illegally lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Ukraine in 2019.

To Mr Cohen, the situation felt awfully familiar.

“Well, two things came straight to mind” after he learned of the raid, he told CNN. “First is that I’m no longer the only one.”

Mr Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence, currently via house arrest, for crimes including ones that he says he committed at Mr Trump’s behest. The most salacious of them was a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic actress with whom Mr Trump allegedly had a sexual affair, which was ruled a campaign finance violation.

In order to avoid a longer sentence, Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to a number of charges, and is now cooperating with the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation of Mr Trump. On Thursday he predicted that Mr Giuliani will be pressured into a similar plea deal, and will probably turn on the former president.

“Prior to Donald becoming president, Rudy didn’t like Donald, and Donald certainly didn’t like Rudy,” Mr Cohen said. “So, do I think Rudy will give up Donald in a heartbeat? Absolutely.”

The former Trump fixer also predicted that Mr Giuliani will give information on others in Mr Trump’s “garbage can orbit”, including Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr, and Jared Kushner.

Like Mr Cohen, Mr Giuliani served as Mr Trump’s personal lawyer during his presidency. During that time, he and the former president pressured Ukrainian officials to open unfounded investigations into Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. Democrats said the effort was designed to hurt the reputation of Joe Biden – who eventually became Mr Trump’s election opponent – and it led to Mr Trump’s first impeachment. 

Now prosecutors are investigating whether Mr Giuliani’s communications between the two countries not only served Mr Trump’s political interests, but the interests of Ukraininan oligarchs. It is a federal crime to lobby the US government on behalf of another country without disclosing it to the Justice Department.

Mr Giuliani has not been charged with any crime, and his lawyer has called the FBI raid a stunt to create “bad publicity.”

“This is totally unnecessary,” attorney Bob Costello told Fox News, saying it was designed to make Mr Giuliani “look like he’s some sort of criminal.”

According to Mr Cohen, however, the investigation is making the former mayor nervous.

“I think he starts to sweat more,” he told CNN, “and hopefully he’s taking the stuff out of his hair that turns it black, because it’s going to be everywhere.”