THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

And the man who said he would take a bullet for Trump may well be considering his position now. To which you can add that as a client, President Chauncey's constant disregard of his advice must have been very frustrating.

President Trump distanced himself from his longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Thursday, saying that a federal criminal investigation was focused on Mr. Cohen’s business dealings and had nothing to do with his legal representation of the president.

The president acknowledged that Mr. Cohen represents him in connection with Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels who has asserted that she had extramarital sexual relations with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Clifford $130,000 shortly before the 2016 presidential election as part of what she now calls a “hush agreement.”

But Mr. Trump said Mr. Cohen did nothing wrong in that matter. Mr. Cohen handled just “a tiny, tiny little fraction” of his legal work, Mr. Trump said. “But Michael would represent me and represent me on some things,” the president said in a telephone call to “Fox & Friends,” his favorite cable television show. “He represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me.”

“From what I see,” he continued, “he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this, which would have been a problem.”

“From what I understand, they’re looking at his businesses,” he added. Discussing Mr. Cohen’s decision to decline to testify in a lawsuit by Ms. Clifford, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Mr. Trump said he was probably just following the advice of his own lawyers. “I’m not involved, and I’ve been told I’m not involved.”

The president’s mention of Ms. Clifford by name — or at least her professional name — was striking because he has mainly shown restraint in not discussing her.

And his comments about Mr. Cohen were among his most extensive since the F.B.I. raided the lawyer’s office, apartment and hotel room after obtaining a warrant from a federal court. Mr. Trump complained on Twitter afterward that the raid meant that “attorney-client privilege is dead!” But his remarks on Fox suggested that the investigation did not involve Mr. Cohen’s legal work.

“Michael is a businessman, he’s got a business. He also practices law,” Mr. Trump said. “And they’re looking at something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business.”

He was not asked if he would consider a pardon for Mr. Cohen. When another journalist asked that at the White House earlier in the week, Mr. Trump snapped, “Stupid question.”

Michael Avenatti, Ms. Clifford’s attorney, quickly seized on the president’s comments, suggesting they would help her lawsuit trying to nullify the 2016 nondisclosure agreement by proving Mr. Trump’s involvement in the effort to keep her quiet before the election.

“Thank you @foxandfriends for having Mr. Trump on this morning to discuss Michael Cohen and our case,” he wrote on Twitter. “Very informative.”

He went on MSNBC and CNN to reinforce his point. “This case gets better every day, every hour, and one of the reasons why it gets better is that they step in to every trap that we lay,” Mr. Avenatti said on CNN.

“The president’s statements this morning are very, very damaging to him in our case,” Mr. Avenatti added. “It directly contradicts what he said on Air Force One relating to his knowledge, or lack thereof, of the agreement of $130,000.”

He said that “it is going to add considerable momentum to our efforts to depose the president and place him under oath, because now we have two contrary statements, made within the same month, relating to what he knew about the agreement, what he didn’t know, what his relationship was with Michael Cohen and we’re going to utilize that statement today to argue for his deposition.”

And within hours of his making his foolish remarks, the government prosecutors used them in court to prove that few if any of the papers seized in the raid on Cohen's office are covered by attorney-client privilege. No one has to give Donny more rope to hang himself, he keeps asking for more. And now would be a good time for Cohen to join the prosecution side.