GOP/MICHAEL COHEN/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Sen. Orrin Hatch, the outgoing Utah Republican and most senior GOP senator, issued a statement on Friday [12-14-18] expressing regret for telling CNN ‘I don’t care’ when asked about President Donald Trump being implicated in crimes by Michael Cohen…In the interview with CNN earlier in the week, Hatch strongly dismissed the federal government’s allegations that Trump directed Cohen, his former attorney, to commit two crimes by facilitating hush money payments to silence stories about alleged affairs with Trump…Hatch suggested the allegations from Cohen were being blown out of proportion in order to attack Trump. ‘I don’t think he was involved in crimes but even then, you know, you can make anything a crime under the current laws if you want to, you can blow it way out of proportion, you can do a lot of things,’ Hatch said.”
–Clare Foran and Manu Raju, “Hatch says he regrets his ‘I don’t care’ comment about Trump allegations,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, December 14, 2018 1:59 pm