Trump slams lawyer

President says former confidante trying to save his own skin

US President Donald Trump is accusing his former lawyer Michael Cohen of lying under pressure of prosecution as the White House grapples with allegations Mr Trump orchestrated a campaign plan to buy the silence of two women who claim to have had affairs with him.

Amid mounting legal and political threats, the president took to Twitter to accuse Cohen – who pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including campaign finance violations on Tuesday – of making up “stories in order to get a deal” from federal prosecutors.

Cohen told prosecutors the violations were co-ordinated by both himself and Mr Trump.

Behind closed doors, Mr Trump has expressed concern that Cohen, who has intimate knowledge of his political, personal and business dealings, had turned on him.

No clear strategy has yet come out of the White House for managing the fallout with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisting the president had done nothing wrong and was not the subject of criminal charges.

Mr Trump publicly denied any wrongdoing in an interview on Fox & Friends, which was set to screen overnight, in which he argues, incorrectly, that the hush-money payouts weren’t “even a campaign violation” because he subsequently reimbursed Cohen for the payments personally instead of with campaign funds.

On Tuesday, Cohen said he secretly made the payments for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election. Mr Trump has insisted that he only found out about the payments after they were made.

The Cohen plea deal coincided with the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on financial charges.

Mr Manafort faces trial on separate charges in September in the District of Columbia that include acting as a foreign agent.