President Trump’s embattled former personal attorney Michael Cohen said he would be loyal to his family and country before all else during a Saturday interview, prompting speculation that he will cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe rather than protecting the president.
“My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will,” Cohen told ABC’s George Stephanopoulous. “I put family and country first.”
In his first substantive interview since his home and office were raided by federal agents in April, Cohen downplayed previous pronouncements of loyalty to Trump. When pressed on whether his past vow to “take a bullet” for the president still applied, Cohen reiterated “to be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty.”
Cohen, who is under investigation for possible election law violations as well as financial crimes, made clear that he would not allow Trump’s defense team to disparage his past work for the president.
“I will not be a punching bag as part of anyone’s defense strategy,” he said emphatically. “I am not a villain of this story, and I will not allow others to try to depict me that way.”
The joint defense agreement that facilitated information sharing between Trump and Cohen’s lawyers will be terminated this week once Cohen retains Guy Petrillo, a former federal prosecutor who served in the Southern District of New York, the same office currently investigating Cohen, according to ABC.
In a striking departure from Trump’s characterization of rampant FBI bias, Cohen defended the bureau and criticized Trump loyalists who have disparaged it.
“I don’t agree with those who demonize or vilify the FBI. I respect the FBI as an institution, as well as their agents,” Cohen told me. “When they searched my hotel room and my home, it was obviously upsetting to me and my family. Nonetheless, the agents were respectful, courteous and professional. I thanked them for their service and as they left, we shook hands.”
He also broke from Trump’s description of the special counsel probe as a witch hunt.
“I don’t like the term witch hunt,” he said. “As an American, I repudiate Russia’s or any other foreign government’s attempt to interfere or meddle in our democratic process, and I would call on all Americans to do the same.”