One of Michael Cohen’s lawyers suggested Tuesday that his client’s guilty pleas before a New York federal court have incriminated President Trump.
“Michael Cohen took this step today so that his family can move on to the next chapter,” Lanny Davis wrote on Twitter.
“Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
[Also read: Wall Street Journal: Manafort, Cohen convictions show Trump ‘at his worst’]
Michael Cohen took this step today so that his family can move on to the next chapter. This is Michael fulfilling his promise made on July 2nd to put his family and country first and tell the truth about Donald Trump.
— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) August 21, 2018
Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?
— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) August 21, 2018
Cohen pleaded guilty on Tuesday to five counts of tax evasion from 2012 to 2016, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution.
While acknowledging the charges leveled against him by federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, Cohen told the court he had been directed to violate campaign law by a candidate for federal office, including paying $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement, according to Bloomberg.
Although Cohen did not mention Trump, it has previously been reported that the president’s former longtime attorney and fixer had arranged the hush money before the 2016 election to buy porn star Stormy Daniels’ silence about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
But Rudy Giuliani, a member of Trump’s outside legal counsel, pushed back on claims Cohen’s comments had implicated his client.
“There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen,” Giuliani told CNN. “It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.”
Trump declined to answer shouted questions from reporters about Cohen Tuesday when he disembarked Air Force One in Charleston, W.Va. He is in the state’s capital city for a rally scheduled for Tuesday night.
[Also read: Paul Manafort found guilty on 8 counts, judge declares mistrial on 10 others]
