Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen sat down with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos and suggested he's ready to flip on Trump and cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Stephanopoulos reports: “Cohen did not praise the president during our conversation — and pointedly disagreed with Trump's criticism of the federal investigations. When I asked Cohen directly what he would do if prosecutors forced him to choose between protecting the president and protecting his family, he said his family is ‘my first priority.'”
Cohen told Stephanopoulos: “Once I understand what charges might be filed against me, if any at all, I will defer to my new counsel, Guy Petrillo, for guidance.”
Stephanopoulos added: “But when I pointed out to Cohen that he wasn't repeating past vows to ‘take a bullet' and ‘do anything' to protect the president, the longtime Trump loyalist left little doubt about where he stands now, saying simply: ‘To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty.'”
Michael Cohen tells me in first in-depth interview since FBI raids on his home and office that family and country, not President Trump, have his 'first loyalty'https://t.co/7r2aM9Tus5 pic.twitter.com/WyZ6IOyGL8
— George Stephanopoulos (@GStephanopoulos) July 2, 2018
ABC News adds that Petrillo (“a highly regarded former federal prosecutor who once led the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan”) is expected to come on board in the coming days: “Once Petrillo fully assumes his role, a joint defense agreement Cohen shared with the president, which allowed their lawyers to share information and documents with each other, will come to an end, ABC News has learned. At that point, the legal interests of the president of the United States and his longtime personal attorney could quickly become adversarial.”
Full report here.
