Michael Cohen said Sunday that former President Trump would use military force to “round up” his opponents if he wins back the White House in November.
“The big warning that I want people to understand is: When Donald Trump says something, stop sane-washing it. Stop trying to make it into something which has some normalcy to it. What he says, he intends to do,” Cohen, who once served as Trump’s personal attorney, said during an interview on MSNBC.
“When he turns around and says gentle, you know, like the head of his network or other people who are critics, that he intends to use SEAL Team Six or the military within which to round up his critics or his opponents, he intends to do it. And I say that with firsthand experience,” he continued, in remarks highlighted by Mediaite.
Cohen, who served a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to federal campaign finance charges and testified against Trump in another case earlier this year, has become a vocal critic of the former president. He recently said he would have to flee the country if Trump wins next month.
The latest comments from Trump’s former fixer recall remarks from the former president’s legal team. Amid Trump’s presidential immunity legal proceedings in January, Trump’s team argued he should be immune from prosecution even if he directed SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent.
Cohen also argued on MSNBC that some Republicans are demonstrating their “fealty” to Trump by not admitting he lost the 2020 election, however there is a “slew of Republicans” who want to see unity in the country.
“This is very different than what Donald Trump is saying. Donald Trump continues with that bombastic, with the rhetoric of divisiveness and hate,” Cohen said.
During the recent vice presidential debate, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), would not say whether Trump lost the 2020 election.
Vance instead said he was “focused on the future.”
Cohen “has zero credibility, and any and all statements made by him about President Trump and others should be disregarded as the rantings of a deeply troubled, jealous, and sad individual who is clearly trying to rehabilitate his image by selling what’s left of his soul through lies and deception,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to The Hill on Monday referencing Cohen’s pleading guilty to charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance law violations in 2018.
Updated at 10:47 a.m. EDT