Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s onetime fixer and personal lawyer, predicted Saturday that Trump will try to capitalize on the indictments he faces for “as long as he can.”
“What he’s doing is he’s inciting his base. That’s really what it’s about, because the more he incites them, the more money that they raise,” Cohen said in an interview with CNN’s Jim Acosta on Saturday.
“He will continue to ride this grift as long as he can,” Cohen added.
Trump has been indicted in four criminal cases: two federal cases, one in Georgia and one in New York. Cohen noted the significant prison time Trump could face if convicted on all counts, but he said he suspects Trump will only start to get nervous about the cases as they approach.
“As far as being desperate, unfortunately, Donald doesn’t see things the way most people see them. If the case is coming up in March, for him, that’s an eternity away. It’s only when it’s around the corner, several days out or a week or so out, [that] it really start to hit him: ‘Oh, my gosh, this is really coming up and I’m going to have to defend it,’” Cohen said.
“Remember the four cases that are now pending against him have legitimate jail time. I mean, they say that if he’s charged and found guilty on all the charges, he could potentially be sentenced to over 700 years,” he continued. “I mean, that’s a crazy, crazy number. So he will continue to ride this same ideology over and over and over again. It’s all in order to keep his base incited, and it’s all about the grift to raise more and more money.”