Former presidential lawyer Michael Cohen claimed he violated campaign finance law at the direction of President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, while pleading guilty in a New York Court Tuesday.
*COHEN SAYS HE VIOLATED CAMPAIGN LAW AT DIRECTION OF CANDIDATE
*COHEN DOESN’T NAME CANDIDATE WHO DIRECTED CAMPAIGN VIOLATIONhint: it’s @realDonaldTrump
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) August 21, 2018
Cohen also told the New York court that he acted for the purposes of influencing the election when he made payments to two women who were alleging an affair with Trump. Cohen, Trump, and the president’s legal team have previously maintained that the payments were made in a personal capacity to save face and had nothing to do with the 2016 presidential campaign.
The payments were made to former porn-star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both claimed to have affairs with Trump in the mid-2000s. Prosecutors targeting Cohen told the court that the aim of the payments to Daniels and McDougal were made to hide his affairs.
MORE: “U.S. SAYS AIM OF PAYMENT TO HIDE CANDIDATE’S ‘ALLEGED AFFAIRS’ (ahem, plural) https://t.co/3vBq19992Y
— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) August 21, 2018