Trump on Payments to Women: "They Came From Me
CUOMO: All right. We did a lot of scrubbing on the facts for you tonight. Why? Because we knew President Trump wouldn't admit to what his former lawyer Michael Cohen made clear in court, that Trump directed Cohen to commit crimes. We knew he was going to go bad on Cohen personally. But there's another line of attack that may be his weakest yet. Remember we played you the tape on this show that made it clear that Trump was aware of what Cohen was doing before he did it. So -- and you heard his lawyer just say yes, he's lying about that. So the new line is this: Obama did the same thing. In fact, he likes this excuse so much, so nice, he used it twice -- once in a tweet and then this.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They didn't come out of the campaign. They came from me. And I tweeted about it. You know, I put -- I don't know if you know, but I tweeted about the payments. But they didn't come out of campaign. In fact, my first question when I heard about it was, did they come out of the campaign? Because that could be a little dicey. And they didn't come out of the campaign. And that's fake. But they weren't -- that's not -- it's not even a campaign violation. If you look at President Obama, he had a massive campaign violation but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently.</s>CUOMO: All right. Here, we don't just listen. We test. First off, the only thing that Trump is right about is that there was a violation involving the Obama campaign, a big one. You've got to remember, every conspiracy theory, like every lie, they're all fed by a kernel of truth. But this story that he's telling is all cob except for that one kernel. Obama didn't do anything personally. His campaign, OK, Obama for America, they did plenty. They failed to report 1,300 contributions within 48 hours as required by law. And that campaign received some contributions that also exceeded allowable limits. In total, the contributions amounted about $2 million. So, the campaign paid a percentage, $375,000 in fines. It sounds like a lot. And it was. But relatively, in the words of one election attorney, Obama was the first billion-dollar presidential campaign. So, proportionally, it's not that out of line. Regardless, it was still wrong. And Trump and anyone else who says this type of violation is nothing needs to remember how little control we have on campaign contributions to begin with. So, reporting really counts. All right. I'm digressing. Here's what really matters here. OK? Now, what happened here in the Cohen case is a different animal entirely. This has nothing to do with the campaign apparatus and everything to do with Trump, his lawyer, and their sneaky scheme to avoid more damage to his campaign. Cohen admitted to making illegal campaign contributions, quote: for the principal purpose of influencing an election. And he tied it directly to the president, saying he was acting at the president's direction. He said someone then running for federal office. Obviously, it's Donald Trump. When he paid off Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. So the president's argument that Cohen didn't commit a crime just isn't true. How do we know? Title 52 of the U.S. Code. All right? Now, you compare that to the Obama campaign violation. It's like comparing apples to, you know, elephants. The Obama matter was settled as a civil matter with the FEC. All right? Cohen intentionally committed a crime and is going to prison. And, by the way, if the president wants to compare his campaign to Obama's, this is why I popped this up. Trump's team also got in trouble in 2016 for improperly handling campaign contributions. About 1,100 donations were made to Trump's campaign in violation of campaign finance laws including donations that exceed the allowable limit in a year. So not only did Obama not do what Trump did, but yes, Trump did do what Obama's campaign did. Now, Cohen paying his peccadilloes, for his peccadilloes. Him saying he didn't know. The real problem here is lying. So, first, Trump said I know nothing about these women, I know nothing about what Cohen did. Then he said, well, all right, I know a little something but I didn't know anything before, I only knew after. That's what he's saying today. But we know about the tape. The tape that we got here on this show that makes it clear that at a time before Cohen made a payment, Trump clearly knew and was directing him. Listen.</s>MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP LAWYER: I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, you know, so that -- I'm going to do that right away. I've actually come up and I've spoken --</s>TRUMP: Give it to me and --</s>COHEN: And I've spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with --</s>TRUMP: So what do we have to pay for this?</s>COHEN: -- funding.</s>TRUMP: One fifty?</s>COHEN: Yes. And it's all the stuff --</s>TRUMP: I was thinking about that.</s>COHEN: All the stuff. Because here you never know where that company -- you never know what he's going to be --</s>TRUMP: Maybe he gets hit by a truck.</s>COHEN: Correct. So I'm all over that that. And I spoke to Allen about it. When it comes time for the financing, which will be --</s>TRUMP: Wait a second, what financing?</s>COHEN: We'll have to pay him something --</s>TRUMP: We'll pay with cash.</s>COHEN: No, no, no, no. I got -- no, no, no.</s>TRUMP: Check --</s>CUOMO: That was before he made the payment. You hear Trump. He knows what's going on. He's lying to your face when he says he didn't know until after. So, now, he's saying you know what, forget about what I said about what I knew or what I didn't know and when, I paid all of it back. So -- first of all, we don't know that for a fact. But let's assume it. Let's give the president the benefit of the doubt. I paid all of it back, so no one contributed anything for me. I call this going the full Buckley versus Vallejo, for you SCOTUS scholars. That's a case that says you can spend as much of your own money as you want on a campaign. Money is seen as political speech. But even if that were true, the president still didn't report it. Anywhere. And that alone would trigger the statute and put him in violation of the law. So then he says, please, no one gets prosecuted for that. Tell John Edwards. His hush money scheme was handled in similar fashion and he was tried. He was prosecuted. He was acquitted but after a full trial. And then today, Trump's Sarah Sanders took it a step further. Not only did Trump do nothing illegal, as Cohen accuses, but listen to this. No. I'm not going to play it for you. She says he did nothing wrong. OK? So, lying to you is not wrong. Lying repeatedly about criminal conduct is not wrong. I showed you the facts. You can conclude quickly that this Trumpian bar of no crime means I did nothing wrong, that my friends is wrong. So what is going to happen with all this politically? The Democrats are playing it in an interesting way. OK? They're not talking impeachment. They're saying no, no, no, we're not ready for that, let's see what happens. But they are now using it as a way to perhaps stop Trump's Supreme Court pick. Is that going to work here? We're going to be talking about that and see if the Cohen-Manafort developments are a game changer the way Chuck Schumer says they are. What do you say? A great debate for you, next.