John Jefferson
Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen has revealed he is working on getting a foreign passport and a totally new name as a back-up in case the former president soars to victory in November.
Cohen, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, testified against the former president during his hush money criminal trial back in May.
The disbarred lawyer’s testimony contributed to Trump being convicted on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over $130,000 hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels – through Cohen – in order to cover up an alleged affair. Trump continues to deny his involvement with the payments and that the affair took place.
Now, Cohen believes that he would be at the top of Trump’s retribution list if he defeats Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
As a result, the former fixer revealed on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on Tuesday that he will likely flee the country if a second Trump term does materialise, saying he is already “working on a foreign passport” under an assumed name.
“I’m out of here,” he told host Nicolle Wallace. “I’m already working on a foreign passport with a completely different name.”
Cohen added: “I don’t know how it’s going to work as far as dealing with my wife and my children. I certainly don’t want them moving to where I’m looking to go.”
When Wallace probed once more whether he’d leave the country, Cohen confirmed: “I have no choice.”
Cohen did not reveal where he plans to move.
During his first term, Trump repeatedly attempted to use his presidential powers to investigate or punish those he considered enemies – from former FBI Director James Comey to his 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Following his stint in jail, Cohen was asked to sign a document that would bar him from publishing his tell-all memoir about his time working with Trump in 2020. He refused and was sent back to prison.
A federal judge then ruled that his “confinement to jail is [a] retaliatory” effort from the government and ordered his release.
Now, Cohen has warned that senior executives in the liberal media are also likely unsafe – including MSNBC’s president Rashida Jones and Wallace herself.
“How many people has he turned around and said that these are people that I intend to go after if I have the ability to?” Cohen warned.
The Supreme Court’s July ruling granting Trump, and other presidents, immunity from official acts undertaken in office only makes things worse, he added.
“Now he thinks it’s ‘not only can I do whatever I want, but I can’t even be prosecuted.’ It’s a ‘get out of jail free’ card solely for the president,” Cohen continued.
Daniels, who was the recipient of the hush money payments, previously revealed her own plans to flee the US if Trump was acquitted in the criminal trial.
“I think if it’s not guilty, we got to decide what to do. Good chance we’ll probably vacate this country,” her husband Barrett Blade told CNN in May.
Daniels said she had been facing violent threats from MAGA supporters ever since Trump was indicted in March 2023.
Earlier this month, she told Rolling Stone she believes there is a “strong possibility” that the former president will have her tried for treason if he is re-elected in November.
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