Cohen wouldn't take a Trump pardon "if it was handed to him," Lanny Davis says
Michael Cohen, the longtime member of the President Trump's inner circle who was sentenced last week to three years in prison, would decline a pardon from Mr. Trump, Cohen's adviser Lanny Davis said.
"Michael Cohen took ownership and personal responsibility for lying and he's going to jail as a consequence," Davis said on "Face the Nation." "And he authorized me, several times, to say he wouldn't take a pardon from Donald Trump if it was handed to him."
Davis also said dismissed a tweet from Mr. Trump this morning in which he called Cohen "a rat."
"That's the language of a mobster, not of the president," Davis said.
Cohen received a three-year prison sentence on Wednesday after pleading guilty to financial fraud, campaign finance charges and lying to Congress. He told investigators Mr. Trump directed him before the 2016 election to make payments to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had affairs with Mr. Trump several years ago.
In his statement ahead of his sentencing, Cohen, at times close to tears, apologized and said "blind loyalty" to Mr. Trump "led me to choose a path of darkness over light."
Davis said Cohen "never" asked for a presidential pardon and has gone through a "genuine transformation."
"Michael Cohen is now taking ownership in his statement to the court of his personal responsibility for his behavior when he worked for Donald Trump," Davis said. "Now that he saw Donald Trump as president, he underwent a genuine transformation because he feared for his country and his family when Donald Trump was president."
Davis also disputed the president's characterization that the FBI "broke into" his client's office when it executed a search warrant earlier this year.
"[Cohen] not only consented," Davis said. "He thanked them for their courtesy as they left."
