MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos called Michael Cohen "an opportunistic thief" on Monday after the former Trump fixer admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his boss.
"Now, there’s an argument to be made that actually, you’re just an opportunistic thief. You literally pocketed money from your employer," Cevallos said on MSNBC as he discussed the ongoing trial.
Cohen testified Monday that he overstated how much he paid a tech company that provided services for the Trump Organization and pocketed the difference. The skimmed money was part of a $420,000 reimbursement to Cohen, which also included his $130,000 payment to former pornography star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Cevallos juxtaposed this admission of theft with how "the prosecution has painted Michael Cohen as sort of this bumbling, pathetic character whose only sins were his misguided, undying loyalty to Donald Trump. ‘Did you lie to Congress?’ ‘Yes, I did. But I did it because I was in the sway of the Svengali hold of Donald Trump.’ But now you see something a little different."
The MSNBC analyst argued that accepting cash payments is asking for trouble.
"The idea that he would just grab a wad of cash and stick it in his pocket, I think has moved Michael Cohen from this figure where he’s part Tom Hagen from ‘The Godfather,’ but really more like Fredo Corleone, to now this guy is just a thief," he said. "And I bet that comes up in closing a lot, the fact that he just admitted that he would willingly steal from his own client."
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Cohen testified Monday during New York's case against former President Trump that he went to TD Bank and withdrew cash over a couple of days to pay RedFinch for its services, which he stored in a brown paper bag. He claimed to have paid the tech CEO $50,000, but testified that he actually only paid $20,000.
