Trump Adviser Jay Goldberg: President Cannot Be Counted on to Tell the Truth

Jay Goldberg, former lawyer and longtime friend of Donald Trump, admits that the public should be concerned over the president's apparent inability to tell the truth when needed to.

Goldberg, who represented Trump during his divorces, told CNN he is worried that Trump "can't be counted on to tell the truth" if he ever needs to testify for special counsel Robert Muller's investigation into alleged collusion between his campaign team and Russia during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

"I'm a good friend of the president and I don't condone lying to the public, that I'll agree with. He deserves the hostility of the public," Goldberg said in the wake of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort being found guilty of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud.

"But getting to the issue of why the special counsel was appointed," Goldberg said, "the question of collusion, and whether there was an arrangement is an essential feature of Mueller's task. This case with Trump started with [former FBI Director James] Comey back in mid-2016 and so far there hasn't been one witness who has testified to collusion between the president and the Russian advisers."

When asked if Trump could be trusted to tell the truth the whole "while sitting in the chair," Goldberg said he has doubts due to past experiences that he could "count comfortably on him testifying" because he may fall into a trap.

"When I spoke to him in April, I said to him 'do not testify, do not submit to questioning,'" he said. "We say that Mueller is the head of the operation, but it's run by his chief deputy, he's a specialist in perjury traps and conspiracy charges and I worry whether [Trump] could safely sit across the table from people who are interested in getting information, or people who are interested in getting him. I think the latter."

On the same day Manafort was convicted by a jury, Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of financial crimes, including one in connection to paying off two women who allege affairs with Trump in return for their silence ahead of the 2016 presidential election. During his confession, Cohen said he made the payments "in coordination with, and at the direction of, a candidate for federal office."

Speaking to Fox and Friends, Trump previously admitted that he was aware "later on" that Cohen had paid hush-money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, and fromer Playboy model Karen McDougal, but insisted the money did not come from campaign funds.

"What he did—and they weren't taken out of the campaign finance, that's the big thing. That's a much bigger thing," said Trump. "Did they come out of the campaign? They didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me."

The president also denied any wrongdoing in a tweet. "The only thing that I have done wrong is to win an election that was expected to be won by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. The problem is, they forgot to campaign in numerous states!" the president wrote. "NO COLLUSION—RIGGED WITCH HUNT!" he added.