Michael Cohen Lists People Donald Trump May Target With SEAL Team Six

Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen warned against a second Trump presidency on Saturday as he listed people the former president may target with SEAL Team Six.

It has been a tight presidential race as Trump and President Joe Biden will likely battle in a rematch of 2020 in November. One key talking point amid the 2024 election has been Trump’s various ongoing legal woes. The former president was found guilty last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels by Cohen shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels alleges she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies. Trump has maintained his innocence, claiming the case was politically motivated against him. His legal team intends to appeal the verdict.

During a Saturday interview with MSNBC’s Velshi with host Ali Velshi, Cohen, who served as a key witness for the prosecution in the case and a Trump critic, discussed what he thinks will happen to him and others if Trump wins a second term.

“He’s already said he intends to use SEAL Team Six to start rounding up his political enemies, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m somewhere at the top of that list. I don’t think that you’re [Velshi] not at the top of that list, but you’re certainly on that list as well as the president of MSNBC, [retired U.S. Army] General Mark Milley, [former Vice President] Mike Pence, [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton, the entire Biden family,” Cohen said.

He added: “This is not a joke and the fact that he is even considered to be the Republican nominee, one of our two political parties, is so offensive. It should be so offensive to everyone in this country.”

However, it’s unclear what Trump plans to do if he wins reelection. Trump has continuously noted his criticism for the Department of Justice (DOJ) amid his legal woes, but when he was asked if he would use the DOJ to go after political opponents, Trump told Fox News’ Fox & Friends in an interview last week, “I’m not sure I can answer the question.”

In addition, the former president rejected the notion he wants retribution against his political enemies when asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday, but noted that he would “have every right to go after them.”

“Number one, they’re wrong. It has to stop, because otherwise, we’re not going to have a country. Look, when this election is over, based on what they’ve done, I would have every right to go after them,” Trump said.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.

SEAL Team Six or officially known as the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), is one of the most elite units within the U.S. military and is a component of the Joint Special Operations Command.

The unit SEAL was created in 1980 in response to the failed Iranian hostage rescue mission, Operation Eagle Claw. While the exact structure and operations of the unit are often classified, it operates in small, highly trained teams capable of performing a variety of missions. Most notably, SEAL Team Six is known for Operation Neptune Spear, the mission that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. They have also been involved in numerous other high-profile missions globally.

Cohen’s comments come after Trump’s legal team suggested in January amid Trump’s presidential immunity claims before the U.S. Supreme Court in his federal election subversion case, that if a president ordered SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent their actions would still be covered by presidential legal immunity, unless they were also impeached and convicted by Congress.

Meanwhile, former Trump official Miles Taylor warned that if Trump wins back the presidency, he’ll likely fill his cabinet with people who are willing to go to great lengths to carry out his agenda.

In an April interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Taylor said that if Trump returns to the White House, the former president will avoid appointing anyone who might turn against him in an effort to avoid the mistakes of his last administration.

“Donald Trump realized very late in his first term that he had far too many people who went to bed and grew a conscience every night and came back in with little inklings of a conscience to say no and push back,” Taylor said. “He doesn’t want those people around. His preference is for that Oval Office to be an echo chamber. That’s what he wants, and it’s what he’ll get.”

Taylor was the first former Trump official to endorse Joe Biden in the last presidential election and would go on to lead a group of over 100 ex-officials who opposed a second Trump term. In the final days of the Trump administration and in the wake of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, several top officials left their posts and criticized their former boss.

When previously asked about Taylor’s comments, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek, “Miles Taylor is a coward and lives a lonely existence because he’s untrustworthy and a liar.”