Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Donald Trump.
- President Donald Trump expressed no concern on Monday about his former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty last month.
- "That was Michael, Michael did that stuff," Trump said.
- Cohen said under oath in court that Trump directed him to handle the hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal.
President Donald Trump expressed no concern Monday about his former longtime lawyer pleading guilty to a series of criminal charges last month in federal court.
During an interview with Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera on his new Cleveland-based, WTAM radio show, Trump said he wasn't worried about the lawyer, Michael Cohen, because the president is "an honest guy" and "that stuff is unrelated to me."
"That was Michael, Michael did that stuff," Trump said.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts, including five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a bank, and two campaign-finance related charges that stemmed from hush money payments to a pair of women who alleged affairs with Trump.
Cohen said under oath in court that Trump directed him to handle the hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, who was paid $130,000 by Cohen in exchange for her silence just prior to the 2016 presidential election, and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, whose story of an affair with Trump was purchased for $150,000 in August 2016 by The National Enquirer, whose owner David Pecker was a close friend of Trump's. The publication never ran her story.
Cohen's legal team in July released a recording of a September 2016 conversation between Cohen and Trump in which they discussed The National Enquirer's purchase of McDougal's story and seemed to contemplate how they could buy the rights to McDougal's story from Pecker.
During his Monday interview, Trump insisted he had "many, many lawyers" who do work for him, implying that Cohen, a senior Trump Organization executive who worked with him for a decade, only played a minor role in his personal dealings.
Trump added that he has nothing to worry about regarding Cohen because he does "everything straight."
"That's how I do it," he added.
Trump said he felt "sorry for Michael" for getting caught up in the series of investigations into his political career and his business, which he called "the witch hunt."