Trump 'Hates People Making Money Off Him': Ex-Campaign Aide Explains Cohen's Risky Role

Cody Fenwick
and
AlterNet
May 10, 2018News & Politics

A former campaign aide to President Donald Trump made a provocative comment Thursday afternoon on MSNBC — suggesting that Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen or the president himself may be in substantial legal trouble following recent revelations.

"The president hates people making money off of him," Sam Nunberg said in a clip first pointed out by Talking Points Memo. "He hates it."

His comments come in response to a series of stories showing that Cohen received millions of dollars in payments following the 2016 election from major U.S. companies, including one firm that's backed by a Russian oligarch. Many have said that these payments indicate that Cohen was engaged in a pay-for-play scheme, potentially on behalf of the president.

Nunberg's comments suggest that if Cohen was conducting such a scheme without Trump's knowledge, the president may be unwilling to help the lawyer with any forthcoming legal troubles out of spite. But it also could mean that Cohen would have known not to operate a personal enrichment plan without Trump's direct involvement and approval, suggesting that Trump could be implicated in any of Cohen's potential wrongdoing.

Nunberg also implies that one set of payments from AT&T indicates that Cohen wasn't able to help the company because the government is currently fighting its efforts to merge with Time Warner. However, the government did side with AT&T in the recent net neutrality fight, so this example is far from conclusive.

Watch the clip below:

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