Cohen: Trump doesn’t understand ‘disparaging somebody is not the way to win a case’

Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s onetime fixer and former personal attorney, lashed out at the former president’s attempt to discredit him as a witness Monday during the opening day of his New York civil fraud trial.

Cohen argued that “disparaging somebody” is not a viable strategy for winning a legal case.

“This is a guy who doesn’t understand disparaging somebody is not the way to win a case,” Cohen said in an interview Monday night with CNN’s Abby Phillip, referring to Trump. “What you need to do is to bring the evidence, bring the documents in order to clear your name, as opposed to thinking you’re going to clear your name by disparaging somebody else.”

In the interview, Cohen was asked to respond to attacks on his character brought by an attorney for Trump’s family, Cliff Robert, who invoked Cohen’s name in court Monday, calling him the “linchpin” of the case.

“When you talk about credibility, you’re going to have a guy who lies to everyone, who is a convicted felon, and he is a fixture of what their case is about,” Robert said Monday, according to Phillips.

“I think Cliff Robert is an idiot,” Cohen said in response. “First and foremost, I have now provided testimony to seven different congressional committees, to the [Robert] Mueller team, to the district attorney on 23 occasions, to the attorney general.” 

“Cliff Robert and Donald Trump … it’s all part of the GOP handbag … all they’re going to do is sit there and try to discredit me, to disparage me,” he argued. “That’s the name of the Trump game.”

Cohen said that while he brought documents and “corroborating testimony” to the table, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump, likely didn’t even need his help.

“I don’t even think that it would be 100 percent necessary for the AG to use me in order to find Trump guilty of the crimes that he’s been charged with,” he said.

The former Trump attorney invoked other attacks the former president has made against key figures in this civil fraud case in New York, as well as attacks he’s made against figures involved in the four criminal cases he faces — including judges and DOJ special counsel Jack Smith.

A judge found Trump liable for fraud last week, stripped him of some of his business licenses and raised the potential for him to lose control of some of his famed properties.
James argued the former president’s company falsely inflated and deflated the value of its assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage.

Trump said he would return to court Tuesday, when the civil trial continues.