This past week, U.S. President Donald Trump was formally implicated in election law crimes. His former lawyer Michael Cohen told a court that he’d repeatedly violated campaign finance laws at the president’s direction. That news swamped the national media scene, and in its wake, former metaphorical front page star Omarosa Manigault-Newman has said that she’s willing to run with it.
The former Trump staffer asserted on a podcast released recently that she’s willing to testify against the president “anytime, anyplace,” including at a Trump impeachment trial.
She added:
‘I think I’ve made it very clear that I am fully willing and ready to testify, to cooperate, to help advance this investigation.’
Talk of a Trump impeachment trial potentially actually taking place has increased this week in the wake of Cohen’s revelations. He secretly peddled hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money meant to pad his then-boss’s electoral chances at Trump’s own direction, he said. That money went to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels, both of whom say they had affairs with the man who is now president.
Omarosa, in the same conversation that she said she’d be willing to testify against Trump, offered some words of support for Cohen, who Trump has thrown under the bus.
She said:
‘Michael Cohen and I are still close. I talked to him today and I wanted him to know and reassure him that his friends are still his friends. We still have his back.’
That perspective contrasts greatly with the president’s own. Trump has completely dismissed Cohen, sarcastically writing on Twitter Wednesday:
‘If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!’
No number of snarky tweets, though, will do away with the fact that Cohen formally implicated Donald Trump in his crimes this past week.
Omarosa backed Cohen’s explanation of the situation, commenting:
‘He would not be paying off porn stars if Donald Trump had not slept with them and had these illicit relationships with them and If Donald Trump had not directed him to pay these women off.’
She has said already that she has substantive information that may be of interest to investigators looking into the Russia scandal, but as of Wednesday, no Congressional committee had gotten in contact with her, she said.
She had, though, already cooperated with an inquiry from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, she’s claimed. She wrote as much on the last page of Unhinged, her new book about her time with Trump that initially earned her rounds of media attention. She has also repeated the claim in media appearances made in connection to its release. She’s provided few details about what information she has and what questions Mueller’s team was seeking answers from her to, though.
Trump has already lashed out at Omarosa in the wake of Unhinged, dismissing her as a “dog” and a “crying lowlife.” In the wake of his implication in actual crimes, though, he might wish her salacious claims were all he had to deal with.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
