CAMPAIGN FINANCE/LEGAL/MEDIA/MICHAEL COHEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “U.S. President Donald Trump offered up a handful of legal arguments in a series of tweets on Thursday [12-13-18] distancing himself from former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to prison on Wednesday [12-12-18] for arranging 2016 hush-money payments to women who say they had affairs with the married president. Cohen admitted his actions were aimed at influencing the election in violation of campaign finance laws and said they were directed by Trump. But the president said in his tweets he never told Cohen to break the law and that the payments were unrelated to the campaign. The early-morning tweets came as the legal pressure on Trump intensified. Also on Wednesday, federal prosecutors in New York announced they had reached a cooperation deal with National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc, which admitted making a hush payment to a former Playboy model to prevent her from going public with Trump affair allegations before the 2016 election. Trump has offered a shifting defense on the payments, first saying in April he did not know about them. Later, he seemed to acknowledge the payments were made, but said they were unrelated to campaign finances, as he said again in the latest tweets.”
–Reuters, “Trump Denies Ties to Ex-Lawyer Cohen’s Crimes,” The New York Times online, December 13, 2018