Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci weighed in on Donald Trump’s hush-money case trial and the testimony of star witness Michael Cohen.
Trump’s Mistake: The mistake Trump made was that he didn’t take care of his “made” guys, Scaramucci said in an episode of the “The Rest Is Politics US” podcast he co-hosts with Katty Kay. Calling it a “cardinal sin,” he said, “So, Michael Cohen is one of his ‘made’ guys and he never took care of him and he left him hanging.”
“Michael Cohen did to him the same thing Sammy Gravano did to John Gotti.”
Scaramucci referred to former mobster Gravano, who agreed to testify as a government witness against the Gambino crime family boss Gotti, which resulted in the latter’s prosecution.
Cohen returned to the court system and exposed Trump, the former White House aide said. “If he is guilty here, which he likely will be, this will be a problem for Mr. Trump,” he said. Scaramucci said Trump may not be put in jail. “Don't rule out Trump having to campaign from Mar-A-Lago with an ankle bracelet,” he said.
The learning lesson, according to Scaramucci, is “you got to protect the people that are working with you, whether you like them or not.”
“Mr. Trump has an asymmetric view of loyalty. He’s paying the price for that in the court,” he said.
Scaramucci also dispelled views that Trump was acquitted due to a hung jury. Citing his law school experience and working with several lawyers, he said, “There’s a group think that overtakes the jury and if there are 11 people pushing for the guilty verdict, they will be able to convince that one person,” he said.
Why It’s Important: The New York hush-money criminal case Trump is fighting assumes importance because it is one of the four criminal cases that would conclude before the Nov. 5 election.
Opinion polls have shown that if the former president were to be found guilty, voters’ disposition toward him would likely change to one of negative. A conviction could cost Trump between 2% and 9% of his support in Louisiana, a recent poll found.
Commenting on Cohen’s testimony, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell said, “You got to remember that when lives end up in a criminal courtroom, and you are the key witness for a criminal prosecution, yours is a broken life… So, Michael Cohen’s life was broken by all of this and what you saw on the witness stand was this broken man.”
In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts including campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. Cohen said he violated campaign finance laws at Trump’s direction “for the principal purpose of influencing” the 2016 presidential election. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison in December 2018 and ordered to pay a fine of $50,000, and he completed the sentence in November 2021.
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