A former adviser to the Trump campaign issued a grim warning Wednesday night to President Donald Trump and his supporters: The President could be months away from facing impeachment because of his former lawyer Michael Cohen.
“This is all they (Democrats) need for impeachment,” Michael Caputo said during an interview on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” with Poppy Harlow. Caputo was a communications adviser during Trump’s 2016 run for the presidency.
“If the Democrats take over the House during the midterm elections, this indication coming out of the Southern District of New York, this charge, is enough for them to run an impeachment against the President, even in the first quarter.”
Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felony counts Tuesday that included tax fraud, false statements to a bank and campaign finance violations tied to his work for Trump, including payments Cohen made or helped orchestrate that were designed to silence women who claimed earlier affairs with the then-candidate. Cohen says the payments were made at Trump’s direction.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump “did nothing wrong” in relation to the hush money, and Caputo suggested Cohen is not credible in what amounts to a he-said, he-said case.
Asked if Trump was closer to impeachment than he was 48 hours ago, before Cohen pleaded guilty, Caputo said, “I believe so,” adding that the recent indictments against Republican Reps. Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of California show that “we’ve got real problems in the House of Representatives.”
Caputo also said he believes the midterm elections in November will come down to a choice of whether voters support or oppose impeachment.
“I really believe that the vote that voters make on Nov. 6 is going to boil down to if they vote for a Republican member of the House of Representatives, they’re going to vote against impeachment, and if they vote for a Democratic member of the House of Representatives or a challenger, they’re voting for impeachment,” he said. “This is all about impeachment. It always has been.”
CNN’s Erica Orden, Mark Morales, Kara Scannell, Shimon Prokupecz and Laura Jarrett contributed to this report.