LEGAL/MICHAEL COHEN/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “President Donald Trump on Monday [12-10-18] sought to downplay the felony his former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to this month, arguing that Cohen’s hush money payments on behalf of Trump were a ‘simple private transaction’ rather than a breach of campaign finance law. Apparently citing a Fox News segment, Trump insisted on Twitter that there is ‘no smocking [sic] gun’ pointing to coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia that emerged from the closed door congressional testimony of former FBI Director James Comey last week. He accused Democrats — several of whom spoke publicly over the weekend to slam Trump following revelations in a series of sentencing memos from special counsel Robert Mueller over the past week — of pivoting to the hush money payments because of a lack of evidence of collusion…Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, pleaded guilty in August to paying off women, including an adult film actress and a Playboy model, who alleged affairs with Trump in return for silence, testifying that he did so at Trump’s behest in an attempt to influence the campaign. Trump and his allies have argued that the payments should have been considered a business expense rather than a campaign contribution.”
–Caitlin Oprysko, “Trump claims Cohen hush money payment was ‘simple private transaction’,” Politico, December 10, 2018 8:07 am