Trump tried to lie in an interview about when he knew about the hush money payments on Fox News, but an audio tape that was already released by Michael Cohen proves that the president is not telling the truth.

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When asked if he knew about the payments, Trump said, “Later on I knew, later on. But you have to understand, Ainsley, what he did, and they weren’t taken out of campaign finance. That is a big thing. That is a much bigger thing did they come out of the campaign. They came from me. I tweeted about it. I don’t know if you know I tweeted about the payments but they didn’t come out of the 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 is big. But they weren’t, it is 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 different.”

The Michael Cohen tape proves that Trump is lying

Here is the tape of Trump and Cohen talking about the payments in September 2016:

The tape proves that Trump knew before the election that the payments were being made.

The Trump Organization could be indicted for the illegal payment

Trump’s claim that the payment didn’t come from the campaign so it is not a campaign finance violation is factually not true. The problem is that Cohen’s payment, as directed by Trump, was a campaign finance violation. It doesn’t matter where the money came from to pay Cohen back. The problem is the conspiracy to make an illegal campaign contribution. Plus, the Trump Organization could now potentially be indicted for the illegal contribution, so Trump is only making things worse with his excuses.

Obama has nothing to do with this, but the Cohen tapes do

The false equivalency to an Obama campaign finance violation is a smokescreen. Obama has nothing to do with this, and his missing of a reporting deadline is not the same thing as a felony plot to hide an illegal contribution. It is obvious why Michael Cohen taped Trump. The president immediately tried to lie when asked about the payments, but he is caught on tape.

The tape proves that Cohen is telling the truth and that Donald Trump committed at least two felonies, and this should be enough to justify impeachment.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association