Michael Cohen says Trump ‘can’t be trusted’ in a new super PAC ad.
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Version 0 of 1. Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer who implicated the president when he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, is the focus a new super PAC ad repudiating Mr. Trump. Released this week by American Bridge, a liberal organization that has spent millions to oppose Mr. Trump, the ad is set to appear on television and online during the Republican convention this week, the group said. In the 1 minute 39 second ad, Mr. Cohen challenged Mr. Trump’s credibility and called his claims of upholding law and order “laughable.” “Virtually everyone who worked for his campaign has been convicted of a crime or is under indictment, myself included,” Mr. Cohen said. The ad comes just days after Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, was arrested on fraud charges related to a private fund-raising effort to build a border wall. The ad shows Mr. Bannon emerging from the Federal District Court in Manhattan last week after a brief arraignment. Mr. Bannon became the seventh Trump associate to have been charged with federal crimes since Mr. Trump took office, a list that includes Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign manager; Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser; and Mr. Cohen, whom Mr. Trump called a “rat.” Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and other crimes related to his role as a confidant of Mr. Trump. He admitted to arranging payments during the 2016 presidential campaign to two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, to keep them from publicly discussing affairs they said they had engaged in with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, from which he was furloughed in May because of the coronavirus pandemic. Probation officers sent him back to prison last month when he refused to sign a document that would have barred him from publishing a tell-all memoir about Mr. Trump. A judge later ruled that the action was retaliatory and ordered Mr. Cohen’s release. In the ad, Mr. Cohen said that anyone watching the Republican convention should not believe one word uttered by Mr. Trump. “So when the president gets in front of the cameras this week, remember that he thinks we’re all gullible, a bunch of fools,” Mr. Cohen said. “I was part of it and I fell for it. You don’t have to like me, but please, listen to me.” |