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Trump Predicts Public Would ‘Revolt' If Congress Impeaches Him

Trump Predicts Public Would `Revolt' If Congress Impeaches Him

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump predicted the U.S. public would “revolt” if Congress impeaches him and denied that he violated campaign finance laws with hush money payments to two women.

“It’s hard to impeach somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong and who’s created the greatest economy in the history of our country,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.

“I think that the people would revolt if that happened,” he added in the interview, which was published on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors filed court documents last week in a case against Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, alleging that Cohen made payments violating campaign finance laws “in coordination with and at the direction of” an unnamed “Individual 1,” described as someone elected president in 2016.

Cohen is set to be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to multiple charges, including tax evasion and breaking campaign finance laws when he arranged hush payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal. Both women have claimed they had sexual encounters with Trump.

Trump told Reuters he assumed Cohen, a lawyer, “would know what he’s doing” to avoid violating campaign finance laws.

“Number one, it wasn’t a campaign contribution,” the president said in the interview. “If it were, it’s only civil, and even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did. OK?”

The president also dismissed concerns that his associates, including Cohen, had business dealings with Russians before and during his 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen late last month admitted to lying to Congress about the extent of those business negotiations.

“The stuff you’re talking about is peanut stuff,” Trump said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning, John Harney

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