As special counsel Robert Mueller continues to investigate and indict people close to the president, Donald Trump has some strong opinions on cooperating with prosecutors: Flipping “almost ought to be outlawed,” he said in an interview with Fox & Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt, which aired Thursday morning.
Trump says flipping “almost” should be illegal
Trump sat down with Fox & Friends just a day after Michael Cohen reached a plea deal and a jury convicted Paul Manafort.
Trump said that flipping — a.k.a. cooperating with investigators in exchange for a better deal — was unjust and unfair while he threw jabs at his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who on Tuesday pleaded guilty in federal court to campaign finance violations related to hush money payments he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle.
“If somebody defrauded a bank and he is going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail, but you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you will go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made, in all fairness to him, most people are going to do that,” Trump said of Cohen. “And I have seen it many times. I have had many friends involved in this stuff. It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal.”
He went on to say:
You get 10 years in jail. But if you say bad things about somebody, In other words, if you make up stories — they just make up lies. ... They make up things and now they go from 10 years to now they are a national hero. They have a statue erected in their honor. It’s not a fair thing.
Cohen’s plea agreement didn’t say that he would cooperate with prosecutors in Mueller’s probe into the Trump campaign and Russia, but it didn’t rule out the possibility either. And Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, has said that Cohen has information Mueller might be interested in.
Trump also commended Paul Manafort, his former campaign chair, for choosing to forgo a plea bargain and sit through a trial on his fraudulent financial activity.
“One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial,” Trump said.
Trump sat down with Earhardt less than 24 hours after one of the worst days for his administration: Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes and Manafort was convicted on eight federal crimes on Tuesday, August 21.
Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution, one count of “willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution,” and one count of “making an excessive campaign contribution.
Manafort stuck through a trial and did not turn on Trump — though there is a possibility he can reach a deal with the prosecution after his conviction and while his trial on multiple conspiracies quickly approaches. It’s unclear (and likely doubtful) that he will.
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