Kellyanne Conway’s Inaccurate Claims About Michael Cohen’s Hush-Money Payments
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Version 0 of 1. What Was Said Kellyanne Conway: “Christopher, in April of 2018, Donald J. Trump, the president, and everybody else were told about the payments.” Chris Cuomo, CNN anchor: “He knew about it from its inception. He came up with the plan.”Ms. Conway: “No, no, no, hold on. You’re saying incontrovertible based on the testimony of people who are trying to get a better deal and a lighter sentence for themselves. Be fair here. Don’t call incontrovertible because you imbue credibility on individuals ——” Mr. Cuomo: “I have a tape of him discussing what to do with Michael Cohen.” — in an interview with CNN on Thursday Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws when he arranged payments to two women during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep them from talking about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump. Ms. Conway is a counselor to Mr. Trump. Her suggestion that the president did not know about these payments until this year is not credible, given the audio recording, news reports and statements from Mr. Trump’s current lawyer. American Media Inc., the parent company of The National Enquirer, has admitted that it purchased the story of one of the women, Karen McDougal, to suppress it, prosecutors said this week. The tape that Mr. Cuomo referred to is a recording between Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump in which they discussed the payment to Ms. McDougal, a former Playboy model. The recording was made in September 2016, according to CNN, and was publicly released this summer. Prosecutors said in a statement that Mr. Cohen and another person associated with Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign met with David A. Pecker, the chief executive of American Media, in August 2015. In that meeting, Mr. Pecker agreed to help the campaign by identifying negative stories about Mr. Trump’s relationships with women. Though the prosecutors’ statement did not identify the other person, The Wall Street Journal and NBC News have reported that Mr. Trump was present at the meeting. Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, said in a May interview on Fox News that Mr. Trump “didn’t know about the specifics” of Mr. Cohen’s payment to another woman, the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. “But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this,” Mr. Giuliani added. (Mr. Giuliani said in a later interview with The Washington Post that Mr. Trump appeared to have learned the details of Mr. Cohen’s payment this spring.) What Was Said Mr. Cuomo: “But why plead guilty if he didn’t do it? Why would David Pecker say he did it if he didn’t do it? Trump is trying to help him out, for years to his own risk.” Ms. Conway: “Christopher, in August of 2015, what are you saying happened, that didn’t happen in August of 2016 that I wasn’t made — just like Russia collusion, I never talked ——” While the meeting between Mr. Cohen and Mr. Pecker occurred in August 2015, Ms. Conway is omitting the fact that the payments were made in the months before the November 2016 election. According to prosecutors, Mr. Cohen agreed to purchase the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story from American Media for $125,000, sometime around late August or September 2016. Mr. Pecker told Mr. Cohen in October 2016 that the deal was off, and told him to tear up the signed agreement. But Mr. Cohen did not, and law enforcement officials found the documents during a search of his offices this spring. Prosecutors also said that Mr. Cohen negotiated the payment to Ms. Daniels in October 2016 to keep her from talking about her relationship with Mr. Trump. In an interview with ABC News that aired on Friday, Mr. Cohen said that “this matter” came about “two weeks or so before the election.” “Post the Billy Bush comments,” Mr. Cohen continued, “so, yes, he was very concerned about how this would affect the election.” (He was referring to an audio recording that surfaced on Oct. 8, 2016, of Mr. Trump making vulgar comments about women to Mr. Bush, a television personality.) According to court documents, American Media also admitted it made the payment to Ms. McDougal “to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.” To suggest claims to fact-check, email factcheck@nytimes.com. |