Having been through the experience himself, Michael Cohen shared his view on the federal raid of Rudy Giuliani’s home and office this week as part of a Justice Department investigation into the former New York City mayor’s business dealings.
Cohen, who like Giuliani served as a personal attorney for former President Donald Trump, said during an appearance Thursday on CNN that he’d warned Giuliani about taking on Trump as a client.
“Rudy, I told you so,” Cohen said. “What I told him was that Donald Trump doesn’t care about anyone or anything, that he will be the next one to be thrown under the bus. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”
Federal agents seized electronic devices in the raids Wednesday on Giuliani’s properties, a major escalation in the investigation of his dealings with Ukraine. It’s believed to be linked at least in part to his involvement with the country when Trump was trying to dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s son, who had been on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
“Who knows what Rudy was involved with,” Cohen said. “What we’re going to find out is there are text messages, there are emails, there are different types of communication apps that the FBI knows how to reestablish, even if Rudy, who I don’t think is technological, tried to delete or what have you.”
He speculated that investigators would be looking at conversations between Giuliani and his Ukrainian associates but might expand their search to others in Trump’s orbit that could be implicated by Giuliani’s correspondence. Giuliani is notorious for his technological slip-ups and lack of cellphone security, having revealed sensitive information to multiple journalists via butt dials.
“Rudy’s an idiot,” Cohen said. “Rudy behaves in such an erratic manner that who knows what’s on those telephones or what’s on his computers.”
Cohen said he believed that Giuliani would turn on Trump if necessary.
“Do I think Rudy will give up Donald in a heartbeat? Absolutely. He certainly doesn’t want to follow my path down into a 36-month sentence for something as innocuous as a hush money payment to a porn star ... at the direction of and for the benefit of Donald J. Trump.”
Cohen, now one of Trump’s biggest critics, is under house arrest serving the remaining months of a three-year prison sentence. He pleaded guilty in 2018 for crimes that included lying to Congress during the Russia investigation and campaign finance violations, including the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.