Truth-Squadding Trump's Comments on Cohen, Manafort Convictions
Truth-Squadding Trump's Comments on Cohen, Manafort Convictions
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump took to Twitter and Fox News Wednesday to vent about the guilty plea entered by his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, and the conviction of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
Some of the president’s statements were inaccurate, misleading or inconsistent with his prior comments.
Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
1. Those two counts are a crime. Cohen admitted making or orchestrating hush payments to two women who claimed they’d had affairs with Trump, to keep them quiet before the 2016 election. That’s a criminal violation of campaign finance laws. (Cohen also pleaded guilty to six other charges, including tax crimes.)
2. The Federal Election Commission fined President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign $375,000 for various violations, including accepting $1.4 million in contributions over the legal limit for individual donors. But it found no indication that Obama knew of the infractions and handled the case through an administrative action.
EXCLUSIVE: President @realDonaldTrump on if he knew about the Cohen payments. See more from his interview with @ainsleyearhardt tomorrow 6-9amET. pic.twitter.com/HPJPslOG6X
â FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) August 22, 2018
3. Trump told Fox News he learned about the payments to an adult film actress and a former Playmate after they’d been made. Previously, he’d said he was unaware of them. And last month, Cohen’s lawyer released a recording from September 2016 in which Cohen and Trump appear to be discussing one of the payments. Prosecutors said one of Cohen’s payments came in October 2016 and that a second scheme ran from August 2016 to October 2016.
I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. âJusticeâ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to âbreakâ - make up stories in order to get a âdeal.â Such respect for a brave man!
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
4. A 12-year-old tax case? No. The charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller focused on Manafort’s federal returns for the tax years 2010 to 2014.
A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case. Witch Hunt!
â Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
5. Yes, the jury deadlocked on 10 counts. But it convicted Manafort of eight others, a verdict widely seen as a victory for Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrew Harris in Washington at aharris16@bloomberg.net;Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net
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