A former Trump insider — whose impressive testimony helped secure the former president’s felony conviction — made the chilling claim that his old boss would use the military to round up political opponents.
Lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen turned on his former boss in spectacular fashion when the ex-president was accused of covering up hush money payments to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Cohen, who was jailed in 2018 for his own role in the affair, claims Trump blocked his release from prison and urged people to take the ex-president’s oft-repeated threats to his opponents seriously.
“The big warning I want people to understand is that if Donald Trump says something, stop being sensible about it,” he told MSNBC. ‘Stop trying to make it normal.
“If he turns around and tells the head of this network or other critics that he intends to use SEAL Team Six or the military to go after his critics or his opponents, then that’s what he intends to do.”
Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has claimed that his ex-boss will use the military top brass to silence his political opponents if he returns to power next month
Cohen predicted that the ex-president would call on the services of SEAL Team Six – best known for the killing of Osama bin Laden – to continue his revenge attacks
Cohen was the key witness at Manhattan Central Court when Trump became the first former president to face a criminal trial in April.
The Republican leader is still awaiting sentence after being convicted of 34 charges of falsifying company records in a trial he dismissed as a “witch hunt.”
He will have the power to pardon himself if re-elected in November and has repeatedly called for the jailing of opponents, including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and former Vice President Mike Pence.
And he expanded his threats last month against election workers in an effort to prevent a repeat of what he said was the “stolen” 2020 election.
“This legal exposure extends to lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters, and corrupt election officials,” he wrote on his Truth Social page.
“Those involved in unconscionable behavior will be identified, apprehended and prosecuted at a level that has unfortunately never been seen in our country.”
The former president is not known to have threatened to deploy Seal Team Six – best known for the assassination of Osama bin Laden – against his opponents.
But he has renewed calls for his Republican critic Liz Cheney, who is currently campaigning for Kamala Harris, to face military court.
“Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is guilty of treason,” he refuted last month. “Answer the truth if you want to see military tribunals on television.”
The former president has a long history of calling for military action against political opponents, including former GOP Congresswoman for Wyoming Liz Cheney
He made his threats to rank-and-file election workers last month in a post on Truth Social
And his legal team has argued that he would be immune from prosecution if he ordered the elite naval unit to kill his political opponents.
The question aired in January at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals as it deliberated on whether he had immunity from charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
His attorney John Sauer was asked whether that immunity would extend to using SEAL Team Six to kill a political rival.
Sauer said the answer was a “qualified yes” to the extent that it would be appropriate for the Senate to impeach and convict him, but government lawyers pointed out that the president could resign to avoid a Senate or court trial. prevent.
“What kind of world do we live in when a president orders his SEAL team to kill a political rival and then resigns or is not impeached — that’s not a crime?” asked James Pearce, an attorney for special prosecutor Jack Smith.
“I think this is an extremely frightening future that should weigh heavily on the court’s decision.”
The case was heard by the Supreme Court, where judges ruled in July that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for actions he can prove are part of his “official responsibilities.”
Cohen, who admitted he lied to Congress several times during an investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, said his old boss’s grip on the Republican Party helps mask the deep antipathy of traditional Republicans.
Trump and Cohen in happier times, seen here together during a campaign stop in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in September 2016. Cohen worked for Trump for 10 years
Both men were convicted in court over Trump’s $130,000 hush money payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
During much of Cohen’s testimony, Trump appeared to have his eyes closed
“The Republicans showing their allegiance to Donald therefore have something they want if, God forbid, Trump ends up winning the election,” he told MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Sunday.
“But there are also a lot of Republicans who aren’t asking for the same thing, who don’t want to just put this thing in the past.
“They want to see unity in the United States and begin to remove the chaos and division so that we can all work together for mutual benefit.
“This is very different from what Donald Trump is saying. Donald Trump continues with the bombastic rhetoric of division and hatred.
Cohen, who has said he is trying to obtain a foreign passport in case his ex-boss returns to the White House, last week asked the Supreme Court for permission to sue Trump over his 2020 release from prison blocked.
He was released under house arrest in May that year, but claims he was recalled to prison after promising to help prosecutors build a case against Trump himself.
“That was a practice match,” he said on Sunday.
“And now that he knows exactly how to get away with it, I suspect many more people will be locked up simply at Donald’s whim and simply because he sees them as a critic.”