Trump’s legal team bracing for Cohen to cooperate with federal investigation: report

President Trump’s legal team is bracing for the possibility that Michael Cohen could flip on the president and cooperate with prosecutors, according to a New York Times report.

Cohen, a longtime personal attorney and fixer for Trump, has repeatedly pledged his loyalty to the president, insisting that he would go to any length to protect his former boss. 

But now, as details of a months-long criminal probe into Cohen’s work emerge, Trump’s lawyers and advisers have come to terms with the idea that Cohen could ultimately cooperate with investigators.

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Sam Nunberg, a former aide to President Trump’s campaign, told the Times that such a prospect puts Cohen in an unusual position of leverage over the president.

“Ironically, Michael now holds the leverage over Trump,” Nunberg said, noting that Cohen “should maximize that leverage.”

The probe into Cohen came to light last week after the FBI raided the attorney’s home and office. Days later, federal prosecutors revealed that Cohen had been under investigation for months. That probe could involve work that Cohen performed for Trump, the Times reported.

Trump has reportedly been warned about the possibility of Cohen turning on him. Jay Goldberg, a former personal lawyer for Trump, told The Wall Street Journal that he warned the president last week that Cohen is not at loyal as he has let on. 

Goldberg said he told Trump that on a scale of 1 to 100, where 100 represents the full protection of the president, Cohen “isn’t even a 1.”

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a frequent news commentator, also warned on Thursday that Trump should prepare for his closest associates — including Cohen — to turn on him. 

“I think the president has to assume that his closest friends, his greatest associates, the people he trusts the most, if exposed to the risk of life imprisonment, will flip,” Dershowitz said on CNN. “That has to be his working assumption.”