Michael Cohen said President Trump doesn’t deserve loyalty from him or anyone else because he has lied and continues to lie to the American people.
“I gave loyalty to someone who truthfully does not deserve loyalty,” Cohen told ABC News just days after being sentenced to three years in prison for campaign finance violations he carried out on behalf of Trump.
Cohen said that while he has taken responsibility for those actions, Trump has not, and said Trump clearly knew what was going on. He said Trump directed everything in the Trump Organization at the time, including hush money payments to two women with whom he allegedly had affairs.
“Nothing at the Trump Organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump … He directed me to make the payments, he directed me to become involved in these matters,” Cohen told ABC in his first interview since his sentencing. “I just reviewed the documents in order to protect him.”
Cohen said Trump continues to lie from the White House.
“The people of the United States of America, people of the world, don’t believe what he is saying,” he said. “The man doesn’t tell the truth. And it is sad that I should take responsibility for his dirty deeds.”
When asked why he had been so loyal to Trump, Cohen said that it was a “blind loyalty” to a man that he admired.
“I am done with the lying,” Cohen said in reference to when he admitted to lying to Congress. “I am done being loyal to President Trump, and my first loyalty belongs to my wife, my daughter, my son, and this country.”
Cohen, on direction of then-candidate Trump, made hush-money payments to women the president had engaged in affairs dating back several years.
Trump’s former fixer plead guilty to making the payments, which were found to be in violation of campaign finance laws since the money was used to enhance Trump’s chances of winning the 2016 presidential election.
“I am angry at myself because I knew what I was doing was wrong,” Cohen said. “I stood up before the world yesterday and I accepted the responsibility for my actions. The actions that I gave to a man, who, as I also said in my elocution, I was loyal to. I should not be the only one taking responsibility for his actions.”
Trump said that they payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal should have been tried as a civil case, claiming that Cohen had simply made a mistake in filing the paperwork.
