In an interview with Fox News scheduled to air on Thursday, Trump was asked if he knew about the payments Cohen made, and responded, "Later I knew. Later on… but they weren't taken out of campaign finance, that's a big thing, they didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me and I tweeted about it."
Earlier in the day, Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said that Trump directed Cohen to commit a crime, adding that his client would refuse to accept a presidential pardon for the crimes he pleaded guilty to.
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On Tuesday, Cohen pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a bank and two campaign finance violations. Court documents showed that Cohen admitted to making payments to two women in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.