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President Trump takes shot at Cohen after guilty plea, suggests not to retain his services

<p>Michael Cohen, the president's personal lawyer for more than a decade, has reached a plea deal with U.S. attorneys. Two of the eight counts, on campaign finance fraud, relate directly to the president.</p><p>Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami said, "What he did was he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate and the campaign."</p><p>Those women are believed to be ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels. Both are rumored to have had affairs with Donald Trump and been paid to keep it quiet.</p><p>Cohen told a judge in court Tuesday afternoon he coordinated those payments in 2017 with a candidate for federal office. That candidate, not named in court, was Donald Trump. Cohen also said he was reimbursed.</p><p>We spoke with political science professor Keith Whittington on Monday ahead of these developments. Cohen directly implicated the president with his own guilty plea, but we don't know whether or not Cohen cooperated specifically. </p><p>"If I were the president, I wouldn't be confident in that Cohen would be willing to go to jail before dealing information that may be harmful to the president," Whittington said.</p><p>Senate intelligence committee Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner said they've been working with Cohen, meaning the president may not be out of the woods.</p><p>"We recently re-engaged Mr. Cohen and his team following press reports that suggested he had advance knowledge of a June 16 meeting between campaign officials and Russian ... and a Russian lawyer at the Trump Tower," Burr said. "We hope that today's developments and Mr. Cohen's plea agreement will not preclude him from an appearance before our committee as needed for an ongoing investigation."</p><p>The other six counts deal with tax fraud and misrepresentation liabilities for a loan. Cohen is facing between three and a half and six years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12. </p><hr><b>Trending stories at <a href="http://www.newsy.com">Newsy.com</a></b><ul class="inline-related-links"><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/prisoners-organize-nationwide-protests-over-conditions/">Inmates Organize Nationwide Protests Over Prison Conditions</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/hawaii-s-complicated-road-to-statehood-took-4-decades/">Hawaii's Complicated Road To Statehood Took 40 Years</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/parents-are-letting-their-kids-decide-gender-for-themselves/">More Parents Are Raising Their Kids As Gender Creative</a></li></ul>
Posted at 7:55 AM, Aug 22, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-22 10:29:08-04

President Trump took a shot at his former lawyer and self-proclaimed "fixer" Michael Cohen this morning, hours after Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felony charges — including a campaign finance charge he says came at the President's request.

"If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!" Trump tweeted.

RELATED: Michael Cohen pleads guilty, implicates Trump

Trump also falsely claimed in a later tweet that Cohen's campaign finance violations were "not a crime" — despite the fact that Cohen had agreed to plead guilty to the charges. 

The eight charges to which Cohen agreed to plead guilty included campaign finance violation charges relating to hush money payments to two women who had affairs with Trump.

Wednesday's tweets were the first times Trump had directly addressed Cohen by name since the attorney pleaded guilty to eight charges on Tuesday afternoon. He chose not to address the issue at a campaign rally in West Virginia last night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In another series of tweets, Trump praised his former campaign manager Paul Manafort as "brave" for not accepting a plea deal in his federal trial, in which he was found guilty on eight of 18 charges on Wednesday.

"I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. “Justice” took a 12-year-old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” - make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!" Trump tweeted.

Trump also claimed Manafort's trial was a "witch hunt," saying that "a large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided."

Jurors did not acquit Manafort on those 10 charges but instead could not reach a consensus. The government can still choose to re-try Manafort on those 10 charges.

Manafort was found guilty of two charges of bank fraud, a charge of hiding an overseas bank account, and five counts of tax fraud relating to his pro-Russia work in Ukraine. He faces another trial next month on charges that he failed to register as a foreign lobbyist throughout that pro-Russia work.

Trump decried Manafort's guilty verdict to pool reporters prior to the rally last night.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to comment on the Cohen charges shortly after news broke on Tuesday.

Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.

Copyright 2018 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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