Cohen to Stephanopoulos: Trump Directed Me to Make Hush Money Payments

Stephanopoulos: He is saying very clearly that he never directed you to do anything wrong. Is that true?

Cohen: I don’t think there is anybody that believes that. First of all, nothing at the Trump organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump. He directed me, as I said in my allocution and I said as well in the plea, he directed me to make the payments, he directed me to become involved in these matters. Including the one with McDougal, which was really between him and David Pecker and then David Pecker’s counsel. I just reviewed the documents … in order to protect him. I gave loyalty to someone who truthfully does not deserve loyalty.

Stephanopoulos: He was trying to hide what you were doing, correct?

Cohen: Correct.

Stephanopoulos: And he knew it was wrong?

Cohen: Of course.

Stephanopoulos: And he was doing that to help his election?

Cohen: You have to remember at what point in time that this matter came about — two weeks or so before the election. Post the Billy Bush [“Access Hollywood”] comments, so, yes, he was very concerned about how this would affect the election.

Stephanopoulos: To help his campaign?

Cohen: To help him and the campaign.