Trump’s Ex-Con Lawyer Green With Envy Over Hush Money Ruling
President-elect Donald Trump’s former lawyer was so taken aback by the “unconditional discharge” ruling in his former boss’ hush money trial that he turned to ChatGPT for legal help.
Speaking with MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes on Friday night, Michael Cohen told the show’s host that he’d been unable to recall anyone else in history who’d ever been found so guilty, and yet faced so few consequences for their actions.
Last year, Trump was convicted on 34 charges related to his efforts to cover up his 2006 extramarital affair with pornstar Stormy Daniels ahead of his presidential 2016 run. On Friday, New York Judge Juan Merchan nevertheless ruled he would not face imprisonment, a fine or even probationary supervision for his crimes.
Cohen, meanwhile, was also found guilty in 2018 on charges related to the same payments, and was sentenced to jail time before being released in 2021.
As Cohen put it to Hayes that evening, “I’m obviously very torn between what I would’ve liked to have seen happen. Don’t forget, I received a six-year sentence–three years of incarceration, three years of supervised release.”
He went on, “In my entire legal career, I’ve never even heard of an unconditional discharge. I was so confused about it, I actually went to ChatGPT [and] I looked it up and I was unable to find anybody in history who has ever gotten an unconditional discharge.”
Cohen then added that while he felt Judge Merchan had been “judicious” in his decision, he nevertheless felt the recent ruling undermined the entire basis of the case against the incoming president.
He told Hayes, “If there’s no accountability, if there’s no deterrence factor, there is no repercussion for the 34 criminal counts, I don’t see the point in having the conviction. They probably should have dismissed the case in and of itself.”
Cohen added, “I know a lot of people are saying it doesn’t make sense, why would you say that. You know, I don’t take solace in the fact that Donald Trump is becoming the very first president, or former president of the United States to become a convicted felon.”
He then clarified, “If it makes people happy that they can now call him the felon president, okay, that’s on them. I still have a lot of respect for the office of the presidency, and I am a firm believer that to commit a crime, and have absolutely no punishment, no accountability, no deterrence factor, I just don’t see the purpose.”