Trump denies Cohen’s claims of ‘dirty deeds’
President says he never directed his lawyer to break the law
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday disputed claims by former lawyer Michael Cohen that he engaged in “dirty deeds” that included hush payments to two women to keep them quiet during the 2016 campaign.
“I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law,” Trump tweeted. “He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law.”
Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison for campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. Prosecutors said Trump authorized the hush money scheme.
Cohen, who is cooperating with prosecutors in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, said before sentencing that he took “full responsibility” for “each act that I pled guilty to: the personal ones to me and those involving the president of the United
States of America.”
Noting that Trump described him as “weak,”
Cohen said the assessment was correct, “but for a much different reason than he was implying: It was because time and time again, I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”
In pre-sentencing filings, prosecutors said Cohen – with Trump’s approval – arranged for payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump to try to keep them quiet before the election.
The payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels were not reported at the time and amounted to improper campaign contributions, prosecutors said. Trump and one of his attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, described the payments as private matters that had nothing to do with campaign finance laws.
Trump blamed it all on Cohen and tweeted that “a lawyer has great liabil- ity if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid.”
Giuliani invoked the case of John Edwards, the former senator who was acquitted or had a hung jury on campaign finance charges stemming from payments to a mistress.
“It’s not a violation,” Giuliani said. “They tried it in the Edwards case, and they lost.”
Prosecutors said they have cooperation from the parent company of The National Enquirer, which was involved in hush money payments.
The company said it paid the money in one case “in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election,” according to a prosecution document.
The investigation, by prosecutors in a U.S. attorney’s office in New York, is separate from special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump has changed his story about the payments. After initially denying knowledge of them in April – he said reporters would “have to ask Michael Cohen” – the president and his lawyers said the personal lawyer made the payments on his own from his monthly retainer.
In July, CNN broadcast a tape of Trump and Cohen discussing one of the payments.
Trump echoed his lawyers’ claims that, in the worst case, the payments would be a civil violation of the campaign finance laws, not a criminal one. He cited lawyers who said “I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, if they even apply, because this was not campaign finance.”
Legal analysts said Trump may be hurting himself by speaking so publicly.
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department during President Barack Obama’s administration, tweeted, “Has anyone thought to tell @realDonaldTrump that he has the right to remain silent?”
“I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law.”
President Donald Trump