Michael Cohen won’t accept Trump pardon under any circumstances, and is willing to talk to special counsel, lawyer says
‘Mr Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest and he is more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows’
Michael Cohen, former lawyer and fixer for US President Donald Trump, doesn’t want a presidential pardon and, rather, is hoping to open up about what he knows to investigators with the special counsel Robert Mueller, his lawyer said.
Speaking with NPR Wednesday morning, Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, said his client wasn’t interested in being pardoned.
“Under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump,” Davis said, adding that the president “not only directed a crime, he is part of a cover up.”
But Davis on Wednesday hedged a suggestion he made on television Tuesday night that Cohen could tell Mueller about whether Trump was aware of and encouraged Russian hacking during the 2016 campaign before it became publicly known.
“It is my observation that what he knows will be of interest,” Davis said during a battery of television interviews. “Whether Mr Trump knew ahead of time will remain to be seen.”
Meanwhile, Cohen was subpoenaed as part of a state investigation into whether the president’s personal charitable foundation engaged in a decade-long pattern of self-dealing.
The state’s Department of Taxation and Finance confirmed the subpoena on Wednesday and said it would work with New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who sued the Donald J. Trump Foundation in June.