On Friday, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, laid out how the former president could be a “flight risk” amid his ongoing legal cases.
Trump, who is currently facing four criminal indictments on both the state and federal level, has maintained his innocence in all the cases, saying that they are politically motivated against him as he runs for reelection this year.
On Cohen’s Mea Culpa podcast on Friday, Cohen discussed the ongoing criminal trials Trump is facing with Bakari Sellers, a CNN political commentator, as Cohen asked if the former president was an average person would he be incarcerated by now.
“I don’t know if he would be incarcerated by now, that’s tough to say, everyone is entitled to a bond. The two reasons you don’t have a bond is because, one you are a danger to the community or two you are a flight risk. Is Donald Trump a flight risk? The answer is no, he’s one of the more infamous people in the entire world,” Sellers responded.
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Cohen, a critic of the former president, seemed to disagree and explained how Trump could be a flight risk.
“The flight risk scenario in my estimation has nothing to do whether or not your famous, whether or not people know who you are and recognize you. My understanding of a flight risk is that you have the ability within which to go to a foreign location because of one of many different things. One he has multiple aircrafts that can take him oversees. Two, he has properties oversees in Ireland and Scotland, not that they would let him in, but he has properties. He has oversees bank accounts and he has these four criminal trials right now…That’s how I look at the concept of being a flight risk,” he said.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s spokesperson and Cohen via email for comment.
However, Sellers pointed out that the flight risk pertains more to if the person does not appear for court dates
“A flight risk is leaving an not appearing for your court dates or absconding justice, that’s kind of the definition of it. Just because he has a plane to go oversees, what is he going to do run from authorities with a plane that says Trump on the side, is he going to hide out in a Trump property. I just don’t find that to be realistic,” he said.
In a statement emailed to Newsweek, Cohen reiterated his stance on Trump being a potential flight risk.
“Donald has lived his entire adult life barking orders; not taking them. If and when incarceration becomes a reality, flight certainly becomes an option,” he said.
Trump was recently ordered to pay $83.3 million to former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll for damaging her reputation after she accused him of sexually assaulting her during an incident in the 1990s. A separate jury last year awarded Carroll $5 million from Trump for sexual abuse and defamation. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in those cases and vowed to appeal them as well.
In his case against Carroll, Trump posted a $91.6 million bond earlier this month as part of his appeal, which consisted of the $83.3 million judgment, along with statutory interest added by the State of New York.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to argue presidential immunity in his federal election interference case in Washington, D.C. Arguments, which are now at the Supreme Court, are set to take place before the justices on April 25.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.