Trump Regrets Suing Michael Cohen And Fears He'll Incriminate Himself

Donald Trump sued his former lawyer Michael Cohen several months ago, seeking $500 million in damages over alleged "false statements" and breach of confidentiality. But Trump filed a motion in court this week trying to block evidence in his own lawsuit, claiming that revealing it could incriminate him in other ongoing trials. Maybe he should have thought about that before he filed the ridiculous lawsuit? Farron Cousins explains what happened.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Back in April, Donald Trump sued his former lawyer slash fixer Michael Cohen for half a billion dollars, $500 million. Donald Trump sued Michael Cohen for alleging that Cohen not only violated, you know, the attorney-client confidentiality, but he also violated a non-disclosure agreement. And he's just been out there, according to the lawsuit, spreading false statements about Trump. His, his organization, the whole family. He's done it in books and podcasts, media appearances, everything under the sun. Trump says, Michael Cohen's been lying about including, and this is very relevant, a $74,000 business expenditure from the Trump organization. So Michael Cohen, as part of this lawsuit says, okay, well, uh, I'm gonna need the financial documents. You know, you're accusing me of lying about these things. So if you just turn over the financial documents, I'll be able to prove in court what I'm saying. So, so Trump's folks, this past Wednesday went to court and said, yeah, please block the release of all this information because it's gonna incriminate me in other crimes and ongoing trials. Here is exactly what Donald Trump's lawyers had to say, I'm so sorry. This is so dumb. Uh, co has already requested documents that interfere with and or relate to the pending criminal proceedings and the underlying facts that form the basis of such criminal proceedings. The existence of the criminal proceedings currently ongoing against the plaintiff establishes good cause for the entry of the confidentiality order due to the risk of self incrimination.

So basically they're saying that, Hey, listen, my client is already gonna go to trial for possibly lying in his financial statements. And if we release these financial statements, uh, it's, it's gonna prove that he lied. Um, I know you're trying to get the records protected so that they can't be released, but in your argument, by virtue of your argument, what you're implying is that there's criminal activity there. Like, you can't incriminate yourself if there's nothing bad in it. Like if, if I released my financial documents, my bank statements, my taxes, any of that, I'm not worried, oh crap, that's gonna incriminate me because I haven't done anything wrong. It'd be a violation of my privacy. Sure, but it's not going to incriminate me in any activity. And his lawyer is sitting there telling him like, Hey, listen, judge, whew, I dunno if you know this, whatever in Manhattan, uh, a guy's being put on trial for financial crimes. So if we give the financial documents to Cohen, it's pretty much gonna guarantee a prosecution.

I hope, I hope Alvin Bragg is paying attention to that court filing. But here's the thing. Trump filed the lawsuit. In order for Michael Cohen to legally be able to defend himself, Trump is going to have to turn over those records. Like the judge can't issue a ruling saying, okay, defendant is not entitled to seek the evidence that would prove their innocence. That's not gonna happen. No court in the country is going to uphold that. So Trump is left with two options, release the documents and incriminate yourself in that Manhattan trial, or drop the lawsuit against Michael Cohen. You're gonna lose it anyway. So there you are. And there you have it. Those are your only two options, Donald. I really hope that you pick option number one and release the financial documents anyway. 'cause I think that would be more fun because again, Michael Cohen's gonna win the lawsuit. Like you're not gonna prevail in the lawsuit. So block the evidence all you want. Cohen's still probably gonna win, but I would love to see you incriminate yourself in any of the ongoing prosecutions. Your lawyer's admission might have, uh, might have been meant to protect you, but in reality it's kind of an admission of guilt.