Michael Cohen explains why pardoning allies ‘produces a very significant problem for Donald Trump’

George Back
·Producer, Yahoo Entertainment
Updated ·2 min read

Michael Cohen was on The Beat With Ari Melber Monday, and he had a warning for his former client President Donald Trump. Cohen, who is currently on house arrest stemming from multiple convictions, was Trump’s personal attorney for several years. But unlike many of Trump’s allies, he has not been pardoned.

“I would have received one had I agreed not to come out, not to speak to truth to power,” Cohen said.

Trump has pardoned many of his political allies like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, Roger Stone and George Papadopoulos. However, Cohen thinks Trump’s real goal is to pardon so many people that it is not as big of a deal when he pardons the most important people in his life.

“This is Trump fatigue,” Cohen said. “He’s wearing the entire country down so that each and every time that the media keeps talking about this 20 people, this 20 people, another eight people, another 10 people, all of the sudden by the end we’re all going to be like, ‘Oh God, please, enough.’ Please just go away. There’s 23 more days and that’s when he’ll try to drop the pardon power for Jared, Don, Ivanka, Eric, Allen Weisselberg, whoever he thinks will possibly get a federal indictment.”

While the pardons are beneficial for Trump’s family and friends, they may not be so great for Trump himself. Once pardoned of a crime, they can no longer be convicted of that crime. Which means they can’t plead the Fifth Amendment over concerns of self-incrimination.

“This produces a very significant problem for Donald Trump,” warned Cohen. “So all of these people may ultimately be his downfall because they’ll be testifying against him either before a court or tribunal.”

The Beat with Ari Melber airs weeknights at 6 p.m. on MSNBC.

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