President Donald Trump has defended the hush money payments made by his former lawyer to two women during his 2016 campaign as “a simple private transaction”.
He tweeted on Monday that, if there was wrongdoing, it was lawyer Michael Cohen’s “liability” and not his.
“Democrats can’t find a Smocking Gun tying the Trump campaign to Russia after James Comey’s testimony. No Smocking Gun…No Collusion.” @FoxNews That’s because there was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution,…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2018
….which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s – but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2018
US federal prosecutors said in a court filing on Friday that Mr Cohen “acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election” and at the direction of Mr Trump when he brokered deals to stop women from going public about their alleged affairs with Trump.
Mr Trump has argued that the payments, which he first denied knowledge of, were not campaign contributions because his own money and not campaign funds were used for the payments.
But US federal law requires disclosure of payments made “for the purposes of influencing” an election.
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