This week longtime Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison. His sentence comes after pleading guilty to lying to Congress and making secret, illegal payments to silence two women claiming to have had affairs with then-candidate Donald Trump.
On the Friday before learning of his sentence, federal prosecutors released documents indicating that Cohen made the payments after being directed by someone referred to “Individual – I” who successfully ran for President of the United States.
Following Cohen’s sentence, President Trump took to Twitter to deny those claims:
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
Now, Cohen is speaking out after being sentenced and President Donald Trump’s denials. Cohen spoke to ABC New’s George Stephanopoulos and he didn’t hold back. He claims Trump knew that those payments were wrong and says that President Trump did not tell the truth in regards to the special counsel on the Russian investigation.
EXCLUSIVE: "I will not be the villain of his story," Michael Cohen tells @ABC News' @GStephanopoulos, saying that Pres. Trump knew it was wrong to make hush-money payments during 2016 presidential campaign. https://t.co/BRtsAOa9YV pic.twitter.com/hZJ3sXzp02
— ABC News (@ABC) December 14, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: "I told the truth, I took responsibility for my actions," Michael Cohen tells @ABC News' @GStephanopoulos.
"And instead of him taking responsibility for his actions, what does he do? He attacks my family." https://t.co/0mV9aLHDyy pic.twitter.com/2pVRhQHZA1
— ABC News (@ABC) December 14, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: "It's never good to be on the wrong side of the president of the United States," Michael Cohen says. "But somehow or another, this task has now fallen onto my shoulders…I will spend the rest of my life in order to fix the mistake that I made." https://t.co/1RnK7BmzLb pic.twitter.com/1f1reBbj7s
— ABC News (@ABC) December 14, 2018
Asked if he felt Pres. Trump was telling the truth about everything related to the special counsel's Russia probe, Michael Cohen tells @GStephanopoulos, "No." https://t.co/WSjuALBLeE pic.twitter.com/CfdSLPRM6N
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 14, 2018