Michael Cohen pleas for Biden presidential pardon: 'I'm somebody's son also'
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen is demanding President Biden pardon him like he pardoned his son Hunter before President-elect Donald Trump can take office.
Cohen discussed his efforts to reach out to the Biden administration for a pardon on MSNBC’s "The Weekend" Saturday morning. He claimed that not giving him a presidential pardon would continue to allow him "to be in danger" of a Trump prosecution.
Cohen argued Biden has an obligation to protect him and other critics from Trump, like he protected his son Hunter.
"Yeah, I put in the application for a presidential pardon because I believe that Joe Biden has the same responsibility to me that he had to his own son," Cohen said. "And I would expect that the same exact pardon that he gave his son has to go to me and to anybody else that’s on that enemies list, whether they want it or not, because I assure you, solitary confinement, where I did 51 days, sucks."
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MSNBC host Symone Sanders agreed with Cohen’s concern over being on Trump’s "enemies list" but disagreed with invoking Hunter Biden for his case.
"I mean, Hunter Biden is the president’s last surviving son," Sanders said.
"I’m somebody’s son also, by the way," Cohen responded.
"Agreed. You are somebody’s son," Sanders said. "But I mean, to be very clear, you’re not the president’s son. And he pardoned Hunter primarily because that is his son, I think."
Cohen insisted on how important it was to take Trump seriously as a threat.
"You have to take Donald Trump for his word when he turns around," Cohen said. "So far, everything that he said that he intends to do, he actually intends to do. And he has been doing it one by one by one. Now, it may not all happen on day one, as he said, but ultimately he’ll have four years plus with a whole group of individuals that are now going to be filling government positions in order to help him effectuate his goals."
Cohen spent three years in prison for federal crimes of tax evasion, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress while working for Trump. He has since become a vocal critic of the president-elect and testified against Trump in Alvin Bragg’s New York criminal case earlier this year.
Cohen also said in September that he had plans to leave the country if Trump were re-elected.
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"I'm already working on a foreign passport with a completely different name. I don't know how it's going to work as far as dealing with my wife and my children. I certainly don't want them moving to where I'm looking to go," Cohen said.
Biden was attacked on both sides for giving his son Hunter a pardon in December, despite insisting he would not. In the weeks leading up to the end of his term, Biden has also said he is still considering pre-emptive pardons for some of Trump’s political foes, like former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney and Dr. Anthony Fauci.