Michael Cohen’s warning about Trump’s recent pardon spree: ‘May ultimately be his downfall’

President Donald Trump has been issuing a lot of pardons lately, but his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who is currently under house arrest for multiple crimes, has not been one of them. And on “The Beat with Ari Melber Monday,” he explained why.

“I would have received one had I agreed not to come out, not to speak to truth to power,” said Cohen.

Trump has pardoned many of his political allies, like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort Charles Kushner, Roger Stone, and George Papadopoulos, but Cohen thinks his real goal is to pardon the most important people in his life.

“This is Trump fatigue,” said Cohen. “He’s wearing the entire country down so that each and every time that the media keeps talking about this 20 people, this 20 people, another eight people, another 10 people, all of the sudden by the end we’re all gonna be like ‘Oh God please, enough.’ Please just go away. There’s 23 more days and that’s when he’ll try to drop the pardon power for Jared, Don, Ivanka, Eric, Allen Weisselberg, whoever he thinks will possibly get a federal indictment.”

But Cohen warned that by pardoning all of his allies, they no longer have to worry about self-incrimination because they can no longer be charged. Which opens up a whole new can of worms for the outgoing president.

“This produces a very significant problem for Donald Trump, in the fact that once you receive that pardon power, you are no longer able to invoke the 5th Amendment,” warned Cohen. “So all of these people may ultimately be his downfall because they’ll be testifying against him either before a court or tribunal.”

Video Transcript

ARI MELBER: What do you think of these pardons thus far?

MICHAEL COHEN: Oh, I think it's like make it rain, right? That's all that he's doing. He's taking-- he's taking political favors and money, right, by people for the sole purpose of giving them pardons.

- President Donald Trump has been issuing a lot of pardons lately, but his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who is currently under house arrest for multiple crimes, has not been one of them. And on "The Beat with Ari Melber" Monday, he explained why.

MICHAEL COHEN: I would have received one had I agreed not to come out, not to speak truth to power.

- While Trump has started by pardoning many of his political allies like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, Roger Stone, and George Papadopoulos, Cohen thinks his real goal is to pardon the most important people in his life.

MICHAEL COHEN: This is Trump fatigue. He's wearing the entire country down. That's when he'll probably try to drop the pardon power for Jared, for Don, Ivanka, Eric, Aaron-- Allan Weisselberg, whoever he thinks, right, will possibly get a federal indictment.

- But Cohen warned that by pardoning all of his allies, they no longer have to worry about self-incrimination because they can no longer be charged, which opens up a whole new can of worms for the outgoing president.

MICHAEL COHEN: This produces a very significant problem for Donald Trump in the fact that once you receive that pardon power-- once you get that pardon, you're no longer able to invoke the Fifth Amendment. So all of these people may ultimately be his downfall simply because they'll be testifying against him either before a court or a tribunal.