In a series of tweets Thursday, President Trump responded to the sentencing of his former lawyer Michael Cohen and his claims that, as a candidate, Trump directed him to violate campaign finance law by paying “hush money” to his paramours. Cohen’s claims about his role in the payments were false and based on faulty legal premises, said Trump, and made only as an attempt to “embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence.”
On Wednesday, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a number of crimes. In his statement before the court, Cohen said he directed “hush money” in the form of a nondisclosure agreement to porn star Stormy Daniels at Trump’s direction, which Cohen says was expressly intended to impact the election, thus potentially constituting an unreported campaign expenditure.
I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called “advice of counsel,” and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid. Despite that many campaign finance lawyers have strongly……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018
….stated that I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, if they even apply, because this was not campaign finance. Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me, but he plead to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018
….guilty even on a civil basis. Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence, which he did-including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook. As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018
They gave General Flynn a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way he was treated – the FBI said he didn’t lie and they overrode the FBI. They want to scare everybody into making up stories that are not true by catching them in the smallest of misstatements. Sad!……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018
WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018