Cohen: Trump knew of hush money
President has blamed his ex-lawyer for scheme
WASHINGTON – Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, said Trump authorized hush money to two alleged mistresses because he was worried about how their stories would affect his chances for election in 2016.
“He knows the truth, I know the truth, others know the truth,” Cohen told ABC in an interview broadcast Friday. “And here is the truth: People of the United States of America, people of the world, don’t believe what he is saying.”
Cohen added of Trump: “The man doesn’t tell the truth. And it is sad that I should take responsibility for his dirty deeds.”
ABC broadcast the interview two days after a federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison for campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress.
Trump has blamed Cohen for the hush money scheme, saying Thursday on Twitter that “I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law.”
“He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law,” he added.
During a Fox News interview later in the day, Trump insisted that whatever Cohen did, “he did on his own.”
Trump also accused Cohen of talking in order to get a reduced sentence, and to protect members of his family – a claim that Cohen said incensed him and prompted him to agree to the ABC interview.
“Instead of him taking responsibility for his actions, what does he do?” Cohen said. “He attacks my family.”
A U.S. attorney’s office in New York is conducting the hush money investigation that implicates Trump.
Cohen has also provided information to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 campaign by hacking Democratic critics of Trump.
Trump and his lawyers claim the payments to two women did not relate to campaign finance, and, even if they did, they would amount to a civil case and not a criminal one.