Donald Trump's Court Cases Are Sucking 'The Life Out of Him': Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen, ex-President Donald Trump's former attorney and self-described "fixer," insinuates that Trump is running for office again solely to protect himself from a legal maelstrom.

Cohen took the witness stand October 24 and October 25 in New York Attorney General Letitia James' $250 million civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, his adult sons and The Trump Organization in which they're accused of misrepresenting assets for financial benefits.

While initially testifying that he was tasked by Trump to boost total assets based on "arbitrary" figures, he later stated during cross-examination by Trump's lawyers that he was never directed to inflate numbers on the former president's personal statement. Cohen then repeated what he has said and written about on numerous occasions, that Trump "speaks like a mob boss" and gives directives without being explicit.

The exchange between Cohen and lawyers Alina Habba and Clifford Robert led to Trump posting on Truth Social that Cohen "admitted his statements were all a big lie" and that the case should be thrown out—to which Cohen fired back, calling Trump's attorneys "morons."

New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who has gotten into squabbles with Trump and his legal team throughout the trial, has stated that Cohen is not a "key witness" in the trial and that Trump is not a credible witness.

Cohen previously served jail time after pleading guilty in 2018 to multiple political and financial crimes related to hush-money payments made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, which composed the basis for the first of four criminal indictments against Trump—who has denied wrongdoing in all cases.

In an interview with Salon's Brian Karem following his testimony, Cohen said that Trump is running for the 2024 presidential nomination only as a "get out of jail free" card, aided by the former president's claims of political persecution from the left.

"[Trump] didn't look good at all," Cohen told Karem. "In fact, he looked beaten-up and weathered. He looked really disheveled and really just different. He looked like somebody had just sucked the life out of him."

He added: "Rest assured, this New York case is really affecting him, specifically because it's about his money. His money is his id, his ego, his superego, all combined into one narcissistic sociopath who for the last, what, 70-plus years—let's just say his whole life—has been predicated on his wealth and his standing.

"What this attorney general case threatens to do is to basically expose the emperor without his clothes and, according to Stormy Daniels, that's not a pretty picture."

Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer who does not represent him in this particular case, told Newsweek via email that Cohen's testimony in the Trump civil fraud case is "documented fact" that mirrors his testimony under oath in February 2019 in front of the House Oversight Committee.

"In other words, from that date forward to his testimony last week in the New York A.G. case, Michael Cohen's public testimony on Trump's fraudulent conduct has been repeatedly vindicated as truthful," Davis said.

Cohen added that he "felt nothing" sitting mere feet from Trump for the first time in some five years, comparing it to passing a stranger while walking down the street and then going about your life.

"It's not that you wish anything bad on that individual, it's just you feel nothing for them," he said. "You don't know them, you don't care. That's exactly how I felt. I wasn't there to make friends with Donald."

Newsweek reached out to Cohen and the Trump campaign via email for additional comment on Monday.

Update 11/07/23, 7:52 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Lanny Davis.