President Donald Trump, in an interview airing Thursday, insisted that his former personal attorney Michael Cohen "made the deals" to pay hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, but the campaign finance violation charges he pleaded guilty to "aren't even a crime."
"They weren't campaign finance," Trump told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" co-host Ainsley Earhardt. "He pled to two counts that aren't a crime, which nobody understands. I watched a number of shows. Sometimes you get good information by watching shows. Those two counts aren't a crime. They weren't campaign finance."
He also told Earhardt that he didn't know about the payments until "later on."
"What he did, and they weren't taken out of campaign finance, that's a big thing," he said. "That's a much bigger thing...they came from me."
And as the money came from him, it's not a violation, said Trump.
Trump also denied being close with Cohen, and said he doesn't "know if he is a fixer" because he doesn't know where that term came from.
"He didn't do big deals," the president said. "Did small deals. [He was] not somebody that was with me that much. They make it sound like I didn't live without him."
He added that he thinks Cohen, who he described as a "part-time" attorney for him, used the payments as part of his plea deal "because he makes a better deal when he uses me like everybody else."
"One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial," said Trump. "I know all about flipping for 30, 40 years I have been watching flippers. Everything is wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip on whoever the next highest one
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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