NO SCAPEGOAT
Trump’s disgraced lawyer Michael Cohen warns ‘I won’t be made the villain after lying for him for 10 years’
DONALD Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has warned the president he won’t be a scapegoat after ten years of loyalty in a bombshell interview.
Cohen broke his silence today saying he refuses to be “the villain” and that the US president needs to take responsibility for his "dirty deeds".
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He told : “He knows the truth, I know the truth and others know the truth.”
“I lied for more than ten years out of loyalty to him, now I have my freedom and I will not be the villain of his story.”
When asked if he had a message for the US president, Cohen said: “Lay off Twitter, run the country the way we all thought you would and bring the country together instead of dividing the country.”
These are the first comments Cohen has made since he was sentenced earlier this week to 36 months in prison for orchestrating hush-money payments to women who allege they had affairs with Trump.
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Cohen had said his “blind loyalty” to Trump is what led him to “cover up his dirty deeds”, which also included lying to Congress about Russian links during the 2016 election campaign.
The 52-year-old father said Trump had to “take responsibility” for his actions.
Speaking clearly and confidently he told Stephanopoulos: “I am angry at myself. I knew what I was doing was wrong, I stood up before the world [Wednesday] and I accepted the responsibility for my actions.”
He was sentenced in a Manhattan federal courtroom for his role in making illegal payments to women to aid Trump's 2016 election campaign and for lying about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.
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District Judge William Pauley sentenced Cohen to 36 months for the payments and to two months for the false statements to Congress. The two terms will run simultaneously.
He pleaded guilty to the campaign finance charge in August and to making false statements in November.
Prosecutors said Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels £100,000 and helped arrange a £120,000 payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal so they would keep quiet about their alleged relationships with Trump.
Adult actress Daniels, 39, is alleged to have had an affair with Trump while he was married to his third wife Melania in 2006.
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She claims she had sex with him in a hotel room at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, just months after Melania gave birth to their son Barron.
Ex-Playboy bunny McDougal has claimed she and Trump engaged in a 10-month extramarital "romantic relationship" in 2006 and 2007.
The President strongly denies both alleged affairs.
When asked if Trump knew if it was wrong to make the payments, Cohen said “of course” and confirmed that it was to “help him and his campaign”.
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He added: “First of all, nothing at the Trump organisation 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.
“You have to remember at what point in time this was, which was two weeks before election, so yes he was very concerned about this would affect the election.”
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Cohen told prosecutors the payments were directed by Trump, implicating the president in a possible campaign finance law violation.
Federal law requires that the contribution of "anything of value" to a campaign must be disclosed, and an individual donation cannot exceed £2,200.
Cohen ended the interview saying it is “never good to be on the wrong side of Trump”, but he hopes he will “remembered in history as helping to bring this country back together”.
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