Donald Trump brought classified White House documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate as a “get out of jail free card” in case the government tries to bring charges against him after he leaves office, his former attorney Michael Cohen. .
“That’s exactly what he saw in those documents,” Cohen said on the “Salon Talks” podcast. “‘You want to play with me? Really? I was the former president of the United States. I have documents that are so damaging to the national security of this country. Go ahead, impeach me, try to throw me in jail. Let’s see what happens. What happens is he gives all this classified information, not like he hasn’t already, but he gives all his classified information to our adversaries, right? ‘You want to play this game? No problem!’ “
He said his former boss would do “anything and everything to protect himself, plain and simple”.
“He doesn’t care about this country. He doesn’t care about democracy. He doesn’t care about QAnon,” he added. “The independents don’t matter to him. He doesn’t care about Republicans or Democrats. He cares about one thing and one thing only and that is Donald J. Trump.”
Cohen and others have made similar predictions since the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Florida compound on Aug. 8 to recover sensitive government documents he illegally brought there. During a CNN interview Later that month, Cohen said Trump likely saw the documents as a bargaining chip should he be indicted.
“The minute they handcuffed him, he’d turn around and say, ‘I’ve got documentation that shows, for example, where our nuclear launch pads are,'” Cohen guessed.
Last month, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who sits on the armed services and foreign relations committees, said he had a similar gut feeling about Trump’s reasons.
“I spend a lot of time in secure Senate facilities. I know what that information looks like,” he told CNN. “The reason Trump brought this with him to Florida was probably to try to sell it or have it as a ‘get out of jail free’ card.
During the Aug. 8 search at Mar-a-Lago, officials were able to recover at least 20 boxes and 11 relevant documents. Trump was found to have more than 300 classified documents in his possession, including 150 that he returned to the National Archives.
Last week, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department believes there are even more documents in Trump’s possession.
Cohen, who served time in prison after facilitating a cash payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to prevent him from disclosing an alleged relationship with Trump before the 2016 election, has since written a second book critical of the president
“Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Justice Department Against His Critics” is due to be published this week.
