Michael Cohen, a former personal attorney for former President Trump, took a jab at his former boss for not testifying Monday in his New York civil fraud trial.
“He’s scared, and he’s rightfully scared,” Cohen said in an interview on CNN. “Everybody’s talking about how, you know, potentially, ‘The lawyers gave him the right advice, that he finally took the right advice.’ Knowing Donald for a decade-and-a-half, I can assure you it had absolutely nothing to do with advice of counsel.”
The former president was expected to take the stand at the beginning of the week. However, he backed out of doing so Sunday.
“As everyone knows, I have very successfully & conclusively testified in the corrupt, Biden directed, New York state attorney general’s rigged trial against me,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The former president testified in the case last month, facing questioning from the New York attorney general’s office.
“Based on the above, and the fact that our unassailable final expert witness has been so strong and irrefutable in his testimony, which will conclude on Tuesday, & that I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than that this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt, that will do nothing but keep businesses out of New York, I will not be testifying on Monday,” Trump wrote in a different Truth Social post Sunday.
Chris Kise, an attorney for Trump, released a statement after the Truth Social post with similar messaging.
“President Trump has already testified. There is really nothing more to say to a Judge who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and thus far appears to have ignored President Trump’s testimony and that of everyone else involved in the complex financial transactions at issue in the case,” Kise said.