Donald trump jr.
Back on the stand today in the $250
million civil
fraud trial in new york
against the trump
family business
last week when he was called
by the state of new york.
Don Junior testified
that he had no direct
involvement in the company's
annual financial statements today.
Trump Jr was called
as the first witness
by his father's defense team
and the son walked the court
through a promotional PowerPoint
of various Trump properties,
calling his father, quote, an artist
with real estate, unquote,
pointing out details
such as the vault at 40 Wall Street,
the inside of Mar a Lago and the library
at Seven Springs.
This was an attempt to show
that if anything, the Trump
properties were undervalued
in those financial statements.
Let's bring in former
personal attorney and fixer
for Donald Trump,
author of the book Revenge
and author of Mia Culpa, Michael Cohen.
Michael, good to see you.
What do you make of don jr.
Referring to his father
as an artist when
it comes to real estate?
Well, I'm not so sure that
I would call him an artist.
In fact, if you look at the properties
that Don Jr
put up on that PowerPoint,
Donald's is not the creator
of any of those.
He was just the purchaser.
Mar a Lago, obviously he didn't build.
That was Marjorie Merriweather Post.
He didn't build Seven Springs,
nor did he build,
you know, for example, Bedminster.
These.
That was the former DeLorean estate.
So and and 40 Wall Street
obviously as well.
He acquired that property.
Details. Details.
Michael, when you testified last month.
Yes. Yes.
Always details
you described on the stand
how you manipulated Trump's
financial statements.
You described it as, quote,
reverse engineering.
Do you think that's what Don Jr is doing
kind of with his PowerPoint
presentation today?
Well, I think what Don is
really doing here
is he's holding the Trump line,
which is what we were all supposed to
and required to do.
In fact,
they should probably change the name
from MAGA to mega and mega,
which is make and go run gag again.
Because when I sat on that stand,
I watched as judging.
Goran was just,
you know, getting visibly nauseous
from the lies that were being told
by the Trump team, by Trump's counsel,
by Don Jr, that he was merely a broker,
that Eric Trump was merely a guy who,
you know, lead concrete.
And so none of which of course,
anybody believes to be accurate
or truthful
when it comes to this or any other case.
Do you think Donald Trump
deserves to go to jail?
So, look,
that's a question
that's been posed to me.
The answer is
he needs to be held accountable.
And do I believe if it was anyone else,
that that individual
would already be in prison or jail?
The answer is emphatically yes.
But because he was the former
president of the United States
and for four years
he was debriefed on a daily basis
our national security secrets.
I personally, as an American citizen,
I would be concern.
And because Donald is the kind of guy
that would sell any of that information
for like a bag of tuna.
Right. Or a book of stamps.
And I do really mean that
it's dangerous for America
to have somebody like Donald Trump
in an environment
where he can share the information.
Look, he's already shared it already
with members of Mar
a Lago as well as other individuals
that came to visit.
So why would he not do it
if it would benefit him
somehow, in some way
in a prison situation?
So what does accountability
look like, do you think?
A very significant home
confinement scenario
where he doesn't have people coming
in, going at leisure?
He's certainly
not going to be playing golf.
He's going to have to fund the well, call
the Bureau of Prisons
to ensure
that there's a guard that's there
watching the property.
His phones would be monitored.
There wouldn't be computer access.
The same exact life.
Other than the fact
he's not sharing a cell with somebody,
he's sharing the house by himself.
What do you make of this Washington
Post report
that Trump
and his allies are looking if he
if he becomes president again,
to use the levers of government,
the Justice Department,
to punish critics and opponents?
And are you worried
that he would target you?
Well, 100%.
First of all, he already did.
December 14th, I'm going
before the appellate court
on the case of Michael Cohen versus
the United States government,
where he and Bill Barr,
Department of Justice
and the Bureau of Prisons,
that they conspired to
to infringe upon my First
Amendment constitutional right,
making me
the very first political prisoner
held by my own country
because I wouldn't
waive my First Amendment
constitutional right,
not publish my book, disloyal,
not do television appearances,
not do media, etc..
If if anybody thinks that
this is a one off.
If Donald Trump becomes
president of the United States again,
it's not just going to be me
being the very first person
that this happened to.
There's going to be
a multitude of people,
possibly yourself included, Jake.
That has occurred to me.
But in our Washington Post article,
they talk about John Kelly,
Bill Barr,
Ty Cobb, and General Mark Milley.
I mean, he talked about executing
Mark Milley.
Could you imagine the man, a general
who has given his life to serving
and protecting this country
as opposed to Captain Bone Spur
that avoided his, you know,
his responsibility
that he wants
to have this man executed
because he's angry at him.
And then there are still Americans
that want to do
what they want to support him,
both financially and by voting.
I don't understand what's happening here.
Michael Cohen, good to see you, sir.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Good to see you, Jake.