Michael Cohen is a man on a mission.

Donald Trump’s former fixer and longtime lawyer was unceremoniously expelled from the ex-president’s inner circle, prosecuted by Trump’s Department of Justice and sent to federal prison for his involvement in a hush-money case that recently led to 34 felony convictions for Trump.

Cohen’s mission now is to make sure Trump experiences the criminal justice system as intimately as he once did. And in an exclusive interview with Salon, Cohen reveals that he intends to ask the Supreme Court to help him do just that.

Cohen is unquestionably dedicated to making the world recognize that Donald Trump is a grifter unparalleled on the U.S. political stage. His latest book, “Revenge,” explains in great detail how Trump weaponized the Department of Justice during his first administration – and used that weapon to put Cohen in prison. “If he can do this to me, he can do it to anyone. And that should be of concern for everyone.”

It’s Cohen’s mission that leads him to view the recent debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump – and the resulting movement to dump Biden from the ticket —as evidence “we're living in an upside down, backward world.”

“See, Joe Biden was concentrating on facts, on legitimacy. Right?" Cohen noted to me. "Donald had no interest in facts. He only cared about standing up there, looking healthy, looking alert. And even though he was alert about the lies, he was still alert. And for whatever the reason is, that is acceptable to the American people.”

Watch my “Salon Talks” with Cohen here on YouTube.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity:

Michael Cohen: Here's breaking news for you only Brian, and your listeners.

Brian Karem: God bless you, sir

Michael Cohen: On Wednesday, July 10 we’re taking our case to the Supreme Court of the United States. And it’s called a writ of certiorari.

***

If you saw that first debate, as I did, everyone's saying that the president had a bad night. But Donald Trump did too. How dangerous is this in your eyes?

Oh, dangerous isn't even the word for it. I'm trying to speak to the folks over in the White House to explain to them that the entire topic of the unconstitutional remand of me needs to be put front and center. Because when Donald Trump turns around and says that he's going to use SEAL Team Six as his own private force to incarcerate( to jail) his political opponents., and the comment that people make is, "You know Donald, he just talks stupid shit. He's not doing anything," the point of the unconstitutional remand of me is don't discount what he's telling you.

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He's already foreshadowing what he intends to do. And when you say “That's not possible. He won't do it. He can't do it.” He's already done it to me. It was a practice run. He now knows, Brian, how to do it to you, how to do it to anyone.

And personally, I don't care about Biden's poor performance. It was a terrible performance. Anybody that wants to tell you it wasn't a bad performance, it wasn't as bad as Democrats and others are making it out to be, they need to go back and watch it again if you want to waste 90 more minutes. Trump stood up there, indignant of anything that Biden said, completely disassociated to the question, completely disassociated to reality of the answer. Provided no fact, and in essence lied. And I say that with a capital L-I-E-D, lied about every single thing that came out of his mouth except his name. Now, why do I say that you're right and you're wrong? You're right that we should be circling the wagon and saying, "How do you have somebody running for one of the main seats in our two-party political system, as the head of the Republican Party, hoping to become — again — President of the United States, who has a fundamental problem with truth?" That should scare the living piss out of everybody.

>He had no intent, no intent on telling the truth. Which was why there was zero debate prep. As he told his people,I don't need it. I know what I need to........

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