Trump to scapegoat own family to avoid conviction: Cohen

A longtime personal lawyer of former US President Donald Trump says he would turn his back on his own family if it helped him avoid conviction in a case relating to a criminal investigation into his company’s activities.

Michael Cohen said in remarks published on Thursday that he believed Trump would try to shift blame for any wrongdoing to everyone but himself, and would "flip" on everyone, including his family members, as New York prosecutors tightened the screws on the Trump Organization.

New York's investigations into Trump are examining whether his sprawling real-estate company violated state laws when it facilitated an illegal hush-money payment to the adult-film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.

The investigators also suspect the Trump Organization committed tax and insurance fraud, including, among other things, by artificially inflating and deflating the value of Trump's assets for loan and tax purposes.

The former personal lawyer told MSNBC that Trump "only cares for himself," and would easily try to blame his accountant, or even his own children for any misdeeds the investigation discovers.

"I think Donald Trump is going to flip on all of them, including his children. I really believe that Donald Trump cares for only himself and he realizes that his goose is cooked," Cohen said.

"He's going to turn on his accountant and point the finger. He's going to say 'Don Jr. handled that.... Ivanka handled that.... Melania... Don't take me. Take Melania!” he added. “He’s going to tell them to take everyone except for himself.”

Cohen, himself, was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations which he now claims he committed on Trump’s orders, and led to his landing in prison.

"It's never Donald. It's always somebody else. It wasn't Donald Trump who had the affair. It wasn't Donald Trump who directed me to make the payments to Stormy Daniels. It wasn't Donald Trump who got the benefit of the relationship and the actions. It was Michael Cohen. And I'm the bad guy into it. Why? Because I didn't take the fall,” he said.

Cohen also rejected the possibility of accepting a pardon from Trump and called the former US president "corrupt and dangerous.”

Trump has already slammed the state and local prosecutors in New York over their bid to launch a criminal probe into his company, arguing that it is a politically motivated effort to attack him.

Trump slams criminal probe into his company as politically motivated

Former US President Donald Trump has slammed the state and local prosecutors in New York over their bid to launch a criminal probe into his company, arguing that it is a politically motivated effort to attack him.

The investigations into the Trump Organization were launched after a congressional testimony by Cohen, who turned on his former boss since pleading guilty in 2018 to various fraud and campaign finance charges.

In a statement, Trump referred to Cohen as a "low life" person, saying that the prosecutors are using their prosecutorial powers to harass him over political reasons.

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