Former President Donald Trump's onetime attorney Michael Cohen is using TikTok to talk about the ongoing New York trial, taunt his former boss, and raise money while announcing a race for Congress, preparing to take another oath he won't keep, according to legal expert Jonathan Turley.
"This would allow [Cohen] to take one of the seemingly few oaths the serial perjurer has not violated," Turley wrote in a column Thursday while slamming Cohen, who is scheduled to testify in Trump's trial next week.
Turley pointed out that in his video, Cohen was wearing a T-shirt showing Trump in an orange prison jumpsuit, while making his money requests and announcing his candidacy.
"Who would have thought that District Attorney Alvin Bragg calling a porn star to the stand would be the moral high ground for key witnesses?" said Turley. "Next could be a disbarred, convicted perjurer who is still seeking to make money off the case."
Cohen had promised not to discuss the trial after objections arose to a gag order put in place by Judge Juan Merchan against Trump.
But as a witness, Cohen has defended the gag order as being necessary for his own protection, while still attacking Trump, Turley wrote.
Trump is appealing the gag order, but Cohen is "doing his best to undermine not just his residual credibility but that of the court," Turley added, which makes Merchan seem "feckless" in his own courtroom.
But Merchan should not see Cohen's antics as a surprise, as he has "always been open as a grifter," said Turley.
Cohen is acting on his nature, but the problem is with a political and legal system that "enables him as a serial liar," Turley wrote.
"Cohen now wants to take an oath of office in the legislative branch," he added. "The question is whether other members could suppress laughter when he swears that he is taking the oath of office 'without… purpose of evasion.'"