Donald Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, offered some advice to the 2024 presidential hopeful's co-defendants in Fulton County's election interference case: "Speak now."
Mr Cohen appeared on CNN, where he was asked whether he believed that Mr Trump's co-conspirators would eventually break and cooperate with the Fulton County district attorney's case.
"My hope is that they take a look to see what just happened with Enrique Tarrio, where he got 22 years while the other insurrectionists got 17 years. These are real sentences," he said.
Tarrio, a leader of the Proud Boys right-wing street gang, was convicted on seditious conspiracy charges and sentenced to 22 years in prison this week, the longest sentence handed down to any Capitol riot defendant.
Mr Cohen said if Mr Trump's codefendants hoped to avoid a similar fate, they should consider flipping on him, and do so soon.
"If they [dont't] want to be part of that club of people that spend basically the rest of their lives behind bars, my recommendation to them would be 'speak now,'" he said. "Because as soon as the guy next to you or the woman next to you starts speaking and spilling the beans, your information is not as important, not as significant. So the person who starts to speak first is the person who gets the benefit."
He said in a previous interview that "Donald doesn't care about anyone but himself," referring to the defendants, adding that he suspects "it will be every defendant for himself," according to Politico.
Some of Mr Trump's co-defendants may already be moving to save themselves by serving up the former president to the Fulton County district attorney.
Michael Cohen said Donald Trump’s co-defendants should ‘speak now’ in the Georgia election interference case— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
At least three of the listed co-conspirators in the Georgia case have already argued that the actions they took were on the orders of Mr Trump.
Even Mr Trump's former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — a co-defendant — has signaled his intentions to place the blame on the former president.
Rumours have also been swirling as to whether or not another former Trump attorney, Jenna Ellis, will flip on her old boss. Mr Trump refused to help her pay for her legal defence, forcing her to crowdfund her case. Ms Ellis has become increasingly critical of the former president in the wake of her legal troubles.
Numerous Capitol riot defendants — including the "QAnon Shaman" Jacob Chansley and Tarrio — attempted to escape legal consequences for their actions by blaming the events of 6 January 2021 on Mr Trump.
The strategy has been largely rejected in Captiol riot cases.
