Trump says 'flipping' in criminal cases should be illegal and warns against impeachment

Trump commented on his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty in federal court, and warned that impeaching him would cause an economic crash

Donald Trump has suggested that cooperating with the government in a criminal case in exchange for a reduced sentence “almost ought to be illegal” while warning that impeaching him would cause an economic crash, in a TV interview on Thursday.

Trump commented on his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to campaign tax violations in federal court in New York on Tuesday, during which he implicated the president in his crimes.

And he also sent a warning signal about any attempt by the US Congress to oust him from the White House.

“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor,” adding that Americans would see economic “numbers that you wouldn’t believe in reverse”. In characteristic ebullient style, he also doubted it will happen.

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“I don’t know how you can impeach somebody who’s done a great job,” he said in an interview with the conservative Fox News channel.

Cohen has not at any stage so far agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. But by making a plea deal, which has drawn the president’s wrath, he can expect a lighter sentence and could yet decide to cooperate with Mueller and ease his punishment further.

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, meanwhile, was found guilty by jury in a federal fraud trial, also on Tuesday, and Trump has since praised him for not “breaking” under pressure to cooperate with prosecutors.

This raises questions over whether a highly controversial presidential pardon could be on the horizon, although Trump has not said directly whether he is considering it.

In the interview with the “Fox & Friends” morning show on Thursday, Trump accused Cohen of implicating him to get a better deal with prosecutors. He said Cohen “makes a better deal when he uses me.” Cohen told the court he had been directed by the “candidate” – Trump’s name was never mentioned in court – to pay hush money to two women who allege they had affairs with him in the past.

“It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal,” Trump said. “It’s not a fair thing, but that’s why he did it. He made a very good deal.”

Trump claimed people who decide to cooperate with the government “make up stories” and “just make up lies”.

He went on: “I’ve known all about flipping – for 30 or 40 years I’ve been watching flippers … I’ve had many friends involved in this stuff … you get 10 years in jail but if you say bad things about somebody, in other words make up stories if you don’t know, they just make up lies … and now they go from 10 years to they’re a national hero.”

But even as Trump accused Cohen of making up the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, he said in the same interview that he knew of the payments and also that he had made them.

“They didn’t come out of the campaign, they came from me. And I tweeted about it. You know, I put – I don’t know if you know but I tweeted about the payments. But they didn’t come out of the campaign.

“But they weren’t – that’s not a – it’s not even a campaign violation. If you look at President Obama, he had a massive campaign violation but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently.”

Trump was apparently referring to a fine levied on the former president’s 2008 campaign over missing and delayed disclosure of high-dollar donors in the final days of that race.

In Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday afternoon Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, was found guilty of eight counts of fraud.

It was a double whammy to the solar plexus of the president.

“This is the worst hour of Trump’s entire presidency – no, make that entire life,” tweeted Norm Eisen, a former White House “ethics czar”.

On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted once again his most regular refrain during the legal turmoil engulfing his circle, posting, in all capitals: “No collusion – rigged witch hunt!”