Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen urges public to vote or face more years of 'craziness'

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption The ultimate guide to voting in 2018 This simple checklist will help make sure your vote counts.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, made his party preference for the midterms crystal clear on Friday, urging the American public to vote Nov. 6 or face more "craziness."

In his first on-camera remarks since he pleaded guilty in August to eight criminal counts, Cohen spoke to CNN outside his Manhattan home about the midterms.

"Listen, here's my recommendation," Cohen told the news network. "Grab your family, grab your friends, grab your neighbors, and get to the polls, because if not, you are going to have another two or another six years of this craziness."

To drive home the point, Cohen, the former deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, added: "So, make sure you vote. All right?"

The #MidtermElections2018 might be the most important vote in our lifetime. #GetOutAndVote #VoteNovember6th — Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) October 14, 2018

Lanny Davis, Cohen's lawyer, said last week that his 52-year-old client changed his party registration back to Democrat from Republican to distance “himself from the values" of the current administration.

A long-time Democrat, Cohen had changed his official registration to Republican after the 2016 election to be able to serve as RNC deputy finance chairman, he told CNN.

Reporter Emily Jane Fox, writing in Vanity Fair this week, quoted a longtime friend as saying Cohen regrets his work on Trump's behalf in his capacity as a Trump Organization employee.

Cohen, who worked as a lawyer and more for Trump from 2006 to May 2018, has been cooperating with federal prosecutors since his guilty plea.

Although he has not negotiated a plea agreement, he met this week with investigators from the New York State Attorney General's office and the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.

He has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud. In his statement to the court, Cohen said he violated campaign finance laws "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office," meaning Trump, "for the principal purpose of influencing the election" for president in 2016.



