Donald Trump says his only error was beating ‘Crooked Hillary’ and says Stormy Daniels hush payments were legal
DONALD Trump says payments to Stormy Daniels were legal and that his only mistake was beating "Crooked Hillary".
Talking to Fox News, Trump insisted he only found out about hush payments "later" - and insist they did not come from campaign funds.
He said: “Later on I knew. Later on. What he did—and they weren’t taken out of the campaign finance, that’s the big thing.
"Did they come out of the campaign? They didn’t come out of the campaign, they came from me.”
The US president also said those kinds of cash pay-offs were "very common among celebrities and people of wealth".
Earlier in the evening he tweeted: "The only thing that I have done wrong is to win an election that was expected to be won by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats."
What do we know so far?
- Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to paying hush money to two women who claimed they had affairs with Trump
- Cohen said he acted "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump who has always denied the allegations
- At almost the same time, a jury found former Trump adviser Paul Manafort guilty of financial crimes on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller
- They were big wins for Mueller, though neither were connected to his probe into Russian election interference
- Trump says the hush payments were not made from campaign money and he found out about them "later"
- Cohen's case could strengthen the case to impeach Trump for "high crimes and misdemeanours", should the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives and Senate at the mid-term elections
- Trump considering presidential pardon for Manafort
Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to paying hush money to two women who claimed they had affairs with Trump.
Cohen said he acted "in coordination with Trump, who has always denied the allegations.
Trump told Fox: "My first question when I heard about it was 'did they come out of the campaign?', because that could be a little dicey.
"And they didn’t come out of the campaign and that’s big."
He will likely be jailed unless the president intervenes.
Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt said tonight: "I think he feels bad for Manafort. They were friends, he didn’t work for him for very long."
Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty to paying Stormy Daniels hush money
Earlier today, Trump blasted Cohen, tweeting: "If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen!"
In a separate tweet, Trump added: “Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime.
“President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!”
What led to Michael Cohen's conviction?
Porn star Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, said Cohen paid her £130,000 days before the 2016 election to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump.
Cohen also recorded a meeting in which he and Trump discussed buying the rights to a kiss-and-tell interview with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have had a "romantic relationship" with him.
Donald Trump Jr, as well as other key figures including Kushner and Manafort, met with individuals who had connections with Russia.
Davis added: "The obvious possibility [exists] of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system in the 2016 election, which the Trump Tower meeting was all about.
"But also [there's the possibility of] knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and cheered it on."
There were also occasional references to Manafort's work on the campaign, including emails showing him lobbying Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner on behalf of a banker who approved £12million in loans because he wanted a job in the Trump administration.
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