Michael Cohen says Trump org charges are ‘tip of the iceberg’
‘There is so much more that’s going to be coming’
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Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen has said the charges filed by Manhattan prosecutors against the Trump Organization on Thursday are just the “tip of the iceberg” and that there is still “much more” to come.
Mr Trump’s company and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg have been accused of grand larceny and falsifying business records in charges filed by the Manhattan district attorney.
Mr Weisselberg was also accused of accepting significant perks from the Trump Organization, including tuition for his grandson and apartment leases as a way of skirting taxes.
He pleaded not guilty to 15 charges against him on Thursday, shortly after the charges were announced.
Speaking on CNN’s Newsroom show, Mr Cohen, who served as an attorney for Mr Trump from 2006 to 2018 and was once a close ally of the former president, said he did not “want people to think that this case is about Allen Weisselberg and an apartment and a free car and so on”.
Five takeaways from the indictments of the Trump Organization and CFO Alan Weisselberg on Thursday
Trump Organization CFO pleads not guilty to 15 felony counts including grand larceny in tax dodge scheme- ‘My God, this is some street-level mobster stuff’: Lawyers on what we know now about the Trump Organization
- Trump Organization news: Weisselberg leaves court after pleading not guilty to hiding $1.7m income
- Trump Organization - Allen Weisselberg indictment: Read the charges in full
“It is substantially larger in scope than just that aspect,” said the former attorney, who is currently under house arrest to serve out the remainder of a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations in the 2016 election race.
The recent charges, Cohen said, are “but the tip – it’s the tip of the iceberg. And there is so much more that’s going to be coming,” he said.
Ultimately, he said he does not believe executives like Mr Weisselberg are the target in the investigation, but the “CEO of the Trump Organization, Donald Trump himself”.
Cohen also said he believed that Mr Weisselberg could be ready to cooperate with prosecutors, now that he knows he may have to spend his “golden years” behind bars.
“He would be crazy not to because right now, his life is on the line. He’s 74 years old. He gets three years, five years, whatever it is, that’s real time when you’re in your golden years. He doesn’t want to be away from his wife, his sons and his grandchildren,” he said.
Mr Weisselberg’s head, Cohen said, “is on the chopping block”.
“And do you think that Donald Trump will protect him? Well, if Allen looks back at what happened to me, the answer is an emphatic no,” he said.
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