For the principle purpose of influencing the election. President trump today is claiming that those Campaign Violations are, quote, not a crime. Thats not what the Justice Department said and same president named as individual one in the plea deal. You can believe individual one who is implicated in the crimes. The president. Who does have a long and storied history of saying thing that is arent true. Or you can believe Career Prosecutors at the Justice Department, two federal judges and a jury of Paul Manaforts peers but you have to pick one or the other. Another falsehood of the president saying that he did not learn of the Hush Money Payments until after theyd been made. Despite the fact, of course, that Michael Cohen recently released an Audio Recording of September 2016 in which donald trump can be clearly heard discussing a potential payment to playboy model Karen Mcdougall and President Trump verified that Tape Tweeting at the time, what kind of a lawyer would tape
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they were trying to create a paper trail. i ll be out there campaigning for him, standing in for him. reporter: now charged with violations, wire fraud and filing false campaign reports, the hunters claim the charges are politically motivated. pointing to the fact that prosecutors on the case attended a clinton campaign event. if they can cloud his name before the election, they take his seat, a republican seat, they put it in the democrat column. that s the reason they have done the late hit. reporter: multiple sources familiar with the case tell cnn the ultimate charging decision was made by u.s. attorney adam braverman, a career prosecutor appointed by attorney general sessions. founding member of the trump caucus in the house in the 2016 campaign duncan hunter, mr. president. reporter: he marks the second early trump backer along with republican congressman chris collins facing criminal charges heading into november s election. congressman hunter s democratic
by president trump then candidate trump to affect the election. but the president s defenders have argued and again this is an odd defense but this guy s been paying off women to keep their mouths shut for a listening time, not just women, other people, too. not necessarily related to the presidential election. do they have an argument to make? they have to come up with something. john edwards made a similar argument having to do with my girlfriend, not campaign. but the timing and the circumstances are so different and the edwards case, it was months if not years removed and it was a current girlfriend. this was people he had affairs with allegedly ten years ago on the very doorstep of the election so the timing s very different and the actions mr. trump took to make the payments, through the attorney, through a corporation. prosecutors argue would be to disguise the nature of the transaction, all circumstantial evidence of wrongdoing or criminal intent. cohen said in court that