Michael Cohen (left) once served as then-President Donald Trump’s lawyer and fixer.
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Michael Cohen is urging the DOJ to investigate if Trump kept photocopies of top-secret files.
He speculated that Trump has more files out there that the DOJ hasn’t found yet.
Cohen accused Trump of using “Art of the Deal” tactics to trade these files for other documents.
Michael Cohen, former President Donald Trump’s one-time personal lawyer and fixer, says the Department of Justice should investigate whether Trump photocopied and kept any top-secret files.
Cohen made the comment while speaking to MSNBC host Ali Velshi on Sunday morning.
During his appearance, Cohen responded to a report from The New York Times on how Trump had been angered by the National Archives and Records Administration’s refusal to provide him documents regarding the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
According to The Times, Trump told advisers he would give NARA the documents he had at Mar-a-Lago if they handed over what he wanted from them.
Commenting on Trump’s actions, Cohen said the former president appeared to be using a tactic from his book “The Art of the Deal” and trying to trade “this for that.”
“This whole issue is absolutely crazy. The fact that we have to sit there and play this game with a former president of the United States?” Cohen said, adding that Trump was not “entitled” to the documents he wanted.
“First and foremost, they are not his,” Cohen added. “Second of all, we know that he has more documents. We know that because, in the file folder, it would specifically state the number of documents in them. Well, there are more of them obviously out there.”
“On top of that, we should find out whether or not he photocopied any of the documents as well,” he added.
Cohen also wondered aloud why Trump — after being president for four years — didn’t attempt to get the documents while he was in office.
A spokesman at Trump’s post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Cohen’s comments on Sunday echoed his remarks in September about Trump likely having kept copies of classified files at his children’s homes, his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey, and Trump Tower in New York.
During its search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, the FBI seized classified documents, including some marked “top secret.” The DOJ is investigating whether Trump broke three federal laws — including the Espionage Act — by keeping the files at his Florida residence.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to felonies, including tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and bank fraud. He was sentenced in December 2018 to three years in prison and was disbarred in February 2019 by the New York Supreme Court.
Since his release, Cohen has become an outspoken critic of Trump and has gleefully weighed in on the former president’s many legal troubles. In September, he announced he was selling t-shirts depicting Trump behind bars to “celebrate the fall of the mango Mussolini.”