US President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, told ABC News on Friday that Trump directed him to arrange hush-money payments with two women because then-candidate Trump “was very concerned about how this would affect the election” if their allegations of affairs became public.
Cohen’s interview with ABC News marks his first comments since he was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes related to the 2016 presidential campaign earlier this week.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong. I stood up before the world [Wednesday] and I accepted the responsibility for my actions,” he said.
When asked if the president also knew it was wrong to make the payments, Cohen replied, “Of course,” adding that the purpose was to “help [Trump] and his campaign.”
Cohen said he is “angry at himself” for his role in the deals, but that he did it out of “blind loyalty” to Trump.
“I gave loyalty to someone who, truthfully, does not deserve loyalty,” he told ABC News.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have implicated, but not charged, the president in the deals reached in the closing weeks of the 2016 election. They allege that Cohen acted “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump, according to court filings.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of bank fraud, tax fraud and campaign finance law violations.
Last month, he pleaded guilty to lying under oath to Congress, as part of a plea bargain Cohen signed with special prosecutor Robert Muller, who is investigating suspicions of Russia's illegal involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
The president has denied allegations of the affairs -- but has had shifting explanations about when he learned about the payments to the women. He has also contended that the deals were private and unrelated to the campaign and that if anything illegal occurred, it was Cohen’s responsibility.
Trump has lashed out at Cohen since his sentencing, contending in a Thursday tweet that his former close confidant only agreed to plead guilty “in order to embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence, which he did.”
In the interview, Cohen refuted the president’s contention that he never directed Cohen to do anything wrong.
“I don't think there is anybody that believes that. First of all, nothing at the Trump organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump. He directed me to make the payments, he directed me to become involved in these matters,” he said.
“He knows the truth. I know the truth. Others know the truth,” Cohen continued. “And here is the truth: People of the United States of America, people of the world, don't believe what he is saying. The man doesn't tell the truth. And it is sad that I should take responsibility for his dirty deeds.”
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)