Updated
US President Donald Trump has said he "never directed" longtime lawyer Michael Cohen to break the law.
Key points:
- The President has insisted the payments were legal private transactions
- He went on to claim campaign finance lawyers said he had done nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws
- Prosecutors have implicated Donald Trump in a crime, but have not accused him of one directly
The President's tweets on Friday (AEDT) come a day after Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including arranging hush-money payments to conceal Mr Trump's alleged affairs.
Cohen and federal prosecutors have said the payments were made at Mr Trump's direction to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Mr Trump tweeted that Cohen "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".
The President went on to claim campaign finance lawyers stated he had done nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws.
He then asserted: "This was not campaign finance."
Mr Trump added Cohen was guilty on "many charges unrelated to me, but he [pleaded] to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not … 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!"
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......
'Peanut stuff'
Mr Trump has gone from denying knowledge of the payments to saying they would have been private transactions that were not illegal.Prosecutors have implicated Mr Trump in a crime, but have not directly accused him of one.
Mr Trump faces growing political and legal risks from a months-long investigation into the payments by US prosecutors, which stemmed from the larger continuing federal probe into alleged Russian interference in the election and possible collusion by Mr Trump's campaign.
Mr Trump has denied collusion with Moscow, calling any of his potential business dealings with Russia "peanut stuff", and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt". Russia has also denied any interference.
Justice Department policy is not to indict a sitting president, but some legal experts have said Mr Trump could be charged after leaving office. Democrats and other critics also have raised the issue of impeachment by Congress.
Cohen also pleaded guilty to tax evasion and lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Organisation building in Moscow.
Cohen, who once said he would "take a bullet for Trump", said his "blind loyalty" led him to lie for the President.
He is the latest Trump associate to be swept up in Mr Mueller's investigation following Mr Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates and former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, among others.
Mr Trump has offered a shifting defence on the payments to the women, first saying in April that he did not know about the payments to later appearing to acknowledge they were made but saying they were unrelated to campaign finances.
In an interview with Reuters this week, he slammed Cohen for cooperating with prosecutors and said he was unconcerned about possible impeachment.
AP/Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment