President Donald Trump has responded news of his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, being sentenced to prison, as well as the latest revelation in the case of Trump’s former national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
The charges stemmed from the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into the extent of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Cohen’s crimes are not related to allegations of collusion with Russia, the core theme of Mueller’s probe.
“I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called ‘advice of counsel,’ and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid,” Trump wrote.
“Despite that many campaign finance lawyers have strongly stated that I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, if they even apply, because this was not campaign finance. Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me, but he plead to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not guilty even on a civil basis.”
The president added, “Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much-reduced prison sentence, which he did-including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook. As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me!”
Trump Responds to Flynn Revelation
The case of Flynn also stems from the Mueller investigation.Flynn’s lawyers also said that the FBI agents did not advise Flynn that lying to the FBI is a federal offense.
Flynn was serving as Trump’s national security adviser at the time of the interview, Jan. 24, 2017.
Trump also responded to the Flynn revelation on Dec. 13 via Twitter: “They gave General Flynn a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way he was treated—the FBI said he didn’t lie and they overrode the FBI.”
“They want to scare everybody into making up stories that are not true by catching them in the smallest of misstatements. Sad!” Trump added. “WITCH HUNT!”
