US President Donald Trump directed hush payments to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign and knew the actions were wrong, his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen said in a television interview that aired on Friday.
"He directed me to make the payments. He directed me to become involved in these matters," Cohen, who was sentenced to prison this week over campaign finance and other charges, told ABC News. Trump on Thursday said he never directed Cohen to break the law.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders spoke to reporters on Thursday: "The president was clear that he directed no one to do anything wrong. Particularly Michael Cohen, he's been clear on this. And I think we've seen that play day in and day out, as we've all said a number of times."
Trump was at a meeting in August 2015 when Cohen and David Pecker, chairman of the publisher of the National Enquirer, discussed a scheme to pay off women to suppress their stories about having had affairs with Trump, NBC News reported on Thursday.
Trump in a series of tweets distanced himself from Cohen, saying that he never directed Cohen to break the law and that the payments were unrelated to his campaign
A non-prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors and American Media Inc, which publishes the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper, was disclosed on Wednesday in conjunction with the sentencing of Cohen for crimes that included violating campaign finance laws by orchestrating hush payments to women.
As part of the agreement American Media admitted that it had made a $150,000 payment to silence a woman about her alleged affair with Trump "in concert" with a presidential campaign and with the intent of influencing the 2016 election.
In its "Statement of Admitted Facts," American Media said that in August 2015 Pecker and Cohen met with at least "one other member of the campaign" where the scheme to identify and suppress such stories by making hush payments was discussed.
The "other member of the campaign" in that meeting was Trump, NBC reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Charles Stillman, an attorney for American Media, declined to comment to Reuters.
Neither Guy Petrillo, a lawyer for Cohen, nor Jay Sekulow, an attorney for Trump, immediately responded to requests for comment.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump in a series of tweets distanced himself from Cohen, saying that he never directed Cohen to break the law and that the payments were unrelated to his campaign.
Cohen said in a guilty plea in August that he was directed by Trump to arrange a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, and personally pay adult-film star Stormy Daniels, both of whom have claimed they had affairs with Trump before he was president. Prosecutors in New York confirmed last week in a court filing that they believed the president ordered the payments to protect his campaign.
Trump has denied the affairs and argues the payments to the two women were not campaign contributions.
In tweets on Thursday, Trump said, "I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law."