The lawyer for convicted hush-money hustler Michael Cohen says his client will never accept a pardon from “dangerous” and “corrupt” President Trump.
“I know that Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man that he considers to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the Oval Office,” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, told NPR Wednesday — less than 24 hours after Cohen copped to paying off two women at the direction of Trump “for the purposes of influencing the election.”
“And [Cohen] has flatly authorized me to say under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump, who uses the pardon power in a way that no president in American history has ever used a pardon — to relieve people of guilt who committed crimes, who are political cronies of his,” Davis continued.
Cohen faces up to 65 years in prison for the payments, which constituted illegal campaign donations, as well as five unrelated counts of tax evasion and one count of lying to a bank — all of which he copped to in federal court Tuesday.
The plea deal Cohen cut does not require him to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation — the probe that uncovered his crimes — but Davis said Tuesday that Cohen is willing to speak to Mueller about a “conspiracy to collude” with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
It’s unlikely Trump will pardon Cohen anyhow — the president raged at his former fixer and personal lawyer Wednesday morning.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer,” he tweeted. “I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”



