The Hill

Michael Cohen suggests Trump’s mounting legal fees make him ‘thoroughly compromised’: ‘He is for sale’

By Sarah Fortinsky

Michael Cohen — who long served as former President Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer — warned Sunday of the potential risk of sending Trump back to the White House with mounting legal fees and financial liabilities.

“We need to be very careful about him as a potential president because he is for sale,” Cohen, now an outspoken critic of the former president, said in an interview on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Sunday.

“He needs to figure out where he is going to raise $500-plus million over a short period of time,” Cohen continued.

Cohen’s warning comes as Trump, the leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate, was found liable Friday for nearly $355 million in penalties in a civil fraud case in New York that delivered a severe blow to his family business.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sued Trump and his business in 2022, alleging the former president falsely altered his net worth on key financial statements to receive tax and insurance benefits. James also alleged that Trump sometimes adjusted his assets’ value to obtain more favorable loans and deals, which the state points to as evidence of fraud.

Last month, a federal jury in a different civil case ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million for defaming E. Jean Carroll, adding to the $5 million verdict in an earlier trial that found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her in separate comments.

When MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend suggested Trump “is open to the highest bidder at this point because the tab keeps being run up,” floating “the Saudis, the Russians,” as options, Cohen agreed.

“Thoroughly compromised, yes,” Cohen said.

Trump was also indicted in four criminal cases, two of which were brought by special counsel Jack Smith, with another each in Georgia and New York. The New York hush money case will be the first to go to trial, and jury selection is slated to start next month. Cohen has been a witness in that case.