Michael Cohen celebrated the guilty verdict in former President Trump’s hush money trial Thursday, arguing the accountability is “exactly what America needs right now.”
“Thirty-four counts, one after the other, one after the other of guilty. It’s accountability. It’s exactly what America needs right now. We need for accountability to be had by all those that break the law, because we like to continuously state, ‘No one is above the law,’ and today’s verdict demonstrates that,” Cohen said Thursday in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Trump was found guilty Thursday on all 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first-ever former U.S. president to become a convicted felon.
The charges stem from reimbursements made to Cohen, Trump’s onetime fixer and attorney, for a hush money payment made to porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.
Cohen was one of several witnesses called to the stand and was a key witness for the prosecution’s case.
Asked for how he is doing following the verdict, Cohen answered, “I guess the word is relieved,” and said he was not surprised by the verdict.
“This has been six years in the making,” he added. “So, this is a six-year process within which for accountability to finally be at.”
The former president is slated to be sentenced July 11, just four days before the 2024 Republican National Convention this summer in Milwaukee. He could face jail time, though first-time offenders on charges like Trump’s are rarely incarcerated.
Shortly after the conviction came down, Trump called the case a “rigged, disgraceful trial.”
“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people, and they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here,” Trump said Thursday.
Trump attorney Will Scharf said the former president’s legal team is “considering all options” to appeal the conviction.