Donald Trump attacked hush money witness Michael Cohen just moments before Judge Juan Merchan held a hearing regarding the ex-president’s suspected gag order violations, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising development to come shortly after Judge Merchan held a special hearing on Tuesday to discuss Trump’s alleged gag order violations, an interview with the ex-president was released.
Although the interview aired after Tuesday’s gag order violation hearing, it was reportedly filmed just moments before Trump entered the Manhattan courtroom to attend the hearing.
Trump appeared to target his former lawyer and fixer during the bombshell interview – something that Judge Merchan ordered the ex-president not to do because Cohen is now a key witness in the criminal hush money trial.
“Michael Cohen is a convicted liar and he’s got no credibility whatsoever,” Trump told Philadelphia’s WPVI 6ABC outside the courthouse on Tuesday morning. “He was a lawyer and you rely on your lawyers.”
“But Michael Cohen was a convicted liar,” the former president continued. “He was a lawyer for many people, not just me.”
“And he got in trouble because of things outside of what he did for me, largely, it was essentially all because of what he did in terms of the campaign, I don’t think there was anything wrong with that with the charges that they made,” Trump charged further.
“But what he did is he did some pretty bad things, I guess, with banking or whatever,” Trump added. “But that was a personal thing to him.”
Meanwhile, Trump also discussed another key witness – former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker – during his fiery interview with the Philadelphia outlet on Tuesday morning.
“David Pecker, I don’t know exactly what he’s going to be testifying against. Or about,” the embattled ex-president said. “But he’ll be testifying today.”
Trump concluded the interview with Philadelphia’s WPVI 6ABC by discussing his ongoing criminal hush money trial.
“If you look at Andy McCarthy, if you look at Jonathan Turley, if you look at everybody, they wrote articles today and yesterday,” Trump claimed from outside the courthouse. “They heard everything about the case. They said, there is no case. There is no case.”
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As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump’s risky remarks about Cohen on Tuesday morning came just moments before Judge Merchan launched a hearing to weigh whether the ex-president violated the gag order imposed upon him last month.
While Judge Merchan reserved a ruling from the bench regarding Trump’s suspected gag order violations, it was not before the judge jousted back and forth with Trump's defense lawyer, Todd Blanche.
“Mr. Blanche, you’re losing all credibility, I have to tell you right now,” Judge Merchan responded after Blanche argued that his ex-president client did not violate the gag order.
“You’re losing all credibility with the court,” the judge added. “Is there any other argument you want to make?”