WASHINGTON—He carried out the boss’ wishes. He understood “the code.” He was blindly loyal—but now he’s considered a rat. Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael…
WASHINGTON—He carried out the boss’ wishes. He understood “the code.” He was blindly loyal—but now he’s considered a rat.
Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen spoke at length on Wednesday about his life in the president’s inner circle, but the most vivid descriptor came in just six words. Trump ran his operation “much like a mobster would do,” Cohen said.
In Cohen’s scathing testimony at a House committee hearing, he repeatedly described Trump, the onetime head of a family business, like a mob boss minus the body count: quick to bully and expecting others to do his dirty work.
Consigliere
Cohen described himself as a consigliere, telling lawmakers he did Trump’s bidding for years, intimidating maybe 500 people and lying to scores, including the first lady.
But Trump never directly told him to do it, he said.
“He doesn’t give you questions, he doesn’t give you orders,” Cohen said. “He speaks in a code, and I understand the code because I’ve been around him for a decade.”
In testimony that cut to the heart of federal investigations encircling the White House, Cohen said he arranged a hush money payment to a porn actress at the president’s behest and agreed to lie about it to the public and the first lady.
He said he had lied by claiming that Trump was “not knowledgeable” about the transaction even though the president had directly arranged for his reimbursement.
