BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — President Donald Trump lashed out at his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, on Saturday, suggesting that there could be legal consequences for Cohen’s decision to record a discussion they had two months before the 2016 election.
“Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) — almost unheard of,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client — totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!”
With his tweet, the latest in a week of dizzying statements by a president whose advisers say has become more unwilling than ever to listen to advice, Trump signaled open warfare on Cohen, a longtime fixer he had until now tried to keep by his side. The Justice Department is investigating Cohen’s involvement in paying women to quash potentially damaging news coverage about Trump during the campaign.
The investigation into Cohen, the onetime keeper of Trump’s personal and business secrets, remains a source of deep concern for the president’s lawyers, and in recent months, Trump has offered public messages encouraging Cohen to stay loyal to him.
But this month, Cohen suggested that he was looking seriously at cooperating with prosecutors.
While the president suggested Saturday that Cohen’s recording may have been illegal, New York law allows one party to a conversation to tape it without the other knowing.
After learning about the tape, The New York Times approached Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. A person familiar with the discussions said that once The Times approached Giuliani, the president’s legal team chose not to assert attorney-client privilege over the recording.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday. In the past, though, the president’s aides have called the account of the affair by the former model, Karen McDougal, “an old story that is just more fake news,” and have denied that the president was involved.
In response to the president’s tweet Saturday, Lanny J. Davis, Cohen’s lawyer, hit back at Trump and Giuliani. Their legal strategy was “flawed,” he said, addressing a comment by Giuliani that the recording could ultimately clear the president of wrongdoing.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.