In response to the comparisons between the different investigations of Donald Trump — including the former president’s alleged involvement in the January 6 insurrection and the Georgia probe — former Trump attorney Michael Cohen said some are worse crimes, but it doesn’t make this most recent indictment any less of a crime.
“I always called this the Al Capone theory,” Cohen told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota and Don Lemon on Thursday, referring to the infamous crime boss. “They couldn’t get him on murder, extortion, racketeering, bootlegging, etc. They got him on tax evasion. If that crime, Don, was enough for me to be charged, fined, convicted and sent to prison, why am I any different from Donald Trump?”
Some background: Cohen pleaded guilty to nine federal crimes including tax fraud, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations for helping pay off two women who threatened to go public with past alleged affairs with Trump just before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the affairs.
Trump was indicted Thursday on more than 30 counts related to business fraud.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating the former president in connection with his alleged role in the hush money payment scheme.
Earlier Thursday, when asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer whether Cohen’s payments to silence women who claimed affairs with Donald Trump were a crime, former Vice President Mike Pence said the self-described fixer went to jail for “lying to Congress.”
Source: www.cnn.com