DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Sen. Charles Grassley says President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen may be truthfully pleading guilty to federal crimes but it’s difficult to believe him when he implicates the president in crimes.
Cohen was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations. The campaign finance plea relates to illegal hush money payments made during the campaign to two women who allege they had affairs with Trump. Cohen says he paid them at the direction of Trump, potentially implicating the president in a crime.
During a call with reporters Wednesday, Grassley was asked whether he believes the president may have broken the law. Grassley said since Cohen lied to Congress, “to what extent do you want to put confidence in what a liar says?”
When asked if he thought Cohen’s guilty pleas were believable, he said Cohen could be lying about that too but “when you have somebody saying yeah, I did something wrong there’s no reason to doubt that.”
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