US President Donald Trump arrives for a political rally at Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia, on August 21, 2018. (AFP/Mandel Ngan)
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that hush payments made by his former lawyer before the 2016 election did not breach campaign finance rules.
Trump’s once-close associate Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to six counts of fraud, and two counts of violating campaign finance laws — by making payments to silence women who alleged affairs with Trump.
But in an interview with news show “Fox and Friends” about the payments, Trump insisted: “It’s not even a campaign violation.”
“They didn’t come out of the campaign, they came from me and I tweeted about it,” Trump said.
In a serious blow to the president, Cohen detailed in court how he made the payments — believed to be porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal — and claimed he was acting at his boss’s request.
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Michael Cohen, former lawyer to US President Donald Trump, exits the Federal Courthouse on August 21, 2018 in New York City. (Yana Paskova/Getty Images/AFP)
Trump has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the payments at the time, while accepting they were made using his funds — to which Cohen had access.
“Later on I knew,” Trump reiterated in the interview.
Trump went on to highlight a campaign reporting violation settled by his predecessor for $375,000 after the 2008 election.
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“If you look at President Obama, he had a massive campaign violation but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently,” Trump said.
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