President Donald Trump ripped his former personal lawyer and fixer in a post on Twitter Wednesday, a day after Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to a number of crimes and implicated the president in a scheme to unlawfully silence two women who claim they had sex with him.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” the president wrote.
Cohen admitted on Tuesday to facilitating payments to two women who have alleged affairs with the president. Those payments, Cohen said, were made to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Cohen’s plea came just as Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight criminal counts by a grand jury in Virginia in the first trial brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
The tweet is the president’s first substantial comment on the matter. On Tuesday, the president said he felt “badly” for Cohen, as well as Manafort, according to a transcript provided by the White House, but did not mention Cohen during a rally he held in West Virginia hours after Cohen pleaded.
Earlier Wednesday, Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis said his client would not accept a pardon from the president if it were offered.
“He considers a pardon from somebody who has acted so corruptly as president to be something he would never expect,” Davis said in a “Today” show interview.
Cohen worked as a lawyer at the president’s real estate company, The Trump Organization, for more than a decade, and was known as one of the president’s most trusted confidants. Cohen continued to serve as Trump’s personal attorney once Trump became president.
Following an April raid on Cohen’s New York hotel and office by federal investigators, Trump’s outside counsel Rudy Giuliani said that Cohen had left the legal team.
