2016 ELECTION/CAMPAIGN/MICHAEL COHEN/PAUL MANAFORT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WOMEN: “White House press secretary Sarah Sanders maintained Wednesday [8-22-18] that President Donald Trump ‘did nothing wrong’ relating to the hush money payments made to women who claimed affairs with him during the 2016 campaign…Sanders declined to answer additional questions about what the President knew about the payments and when he knew it…She responded to inquiries about the President’s tweets about Cohen from earlier in the day, in which he said Cohen ‘broke’ and recommended no one use Cohen as a lawyer, saying, ‘The President has expressed his views on that, I don’t have anything further to add.’ Asked whether Trump would pardon Paul Manafort, Sanders sought to distance the former campaign chairman from the President…Sanders declined to explain the disconnect between Trump’s comments to Fox News and his comments on tape from 2016 discussing how to make payments. Trump told Fox News in an interview Wednesday that he only knew about hush money paid to former adult film star Stormy Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — and discussions about payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal ‘later on.’ Both McDougal and Clifford say they had an affair with Trump, who denies both accusations.”
–Jeremy Diamond and Betsy Klein, “Sarah Sanders on Michael Cohen case: Trump ‘did nothing wrong’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 22, 2018 4:34pm