Trump: ‘Never directed’ Cohen to break law
WASHINGTON —President Donald Trump denied Thursday that he had directed his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to break the law during the 2016 campaign by buying the silence of women who claimed they once had affairs with the future president.
In morning tweets, Trump, however, did not dispute that he had directed Cohen to make the payments, as Cohen and federal prosecutors have alleged —actions that could imperil Trump.
The president claimed that Cohen bore responsibility for any criminal violations of campaign finance law but also asserted that Cohen “probably was not guilty” of even civil violations related to the payments to former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal and adultfilm star Stormy Daniels —a view at odds with that of many lawyers.
“Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence, which he did,” Trump alleged.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for what U.S. District Judge William Pauley called a “veritable smorgasbord of criminal conduct” — crimes that included tax violations and lying to a bank as well as those related to the hushmoney payments.
Trump’s tweets Thursday were his first public comments about Cohen since his sentencing. On Wednesday afternoon, the president ignored questions shouted by reporters about his onetime loyalist.
Trump largely echoed his tweets in a television interview broadcast Thursday afternoon.