President Donald Trump waived off concerns that he might be impeached for violating campaign finance laws during an interview in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Speaking to Reuters, Trump said that he has not done anything wrong.
"It's hard to impeach somebody who hasn't done anything wrong and who's created the greatest economy in the history of our country. I'm not concerned, no. I think that the people would revolt if that happened," Trump said.
The statement comes less than a week after federal prosecutors said Trump directed former attorney Michael Cohen to make payments to two women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, in order to keep the women quiet about affairs each claims to have had with the president.
Trump has denied both of the affairs, though he has admitted to repaying Cohen the $130,000 given to Daniels after previously claiming to have no knowledge of any payments. Cohen will be sentenced in New York on Wednesday.
Prosecutors claim the payments violate campaign contribution laws, prompting Democrats to state that the violations are an impeachable offense.
While Trump has previously ranted about Cohen's cooperation with federal authorities and asking for leniency for a prison sentence on Twitter, the president stated Tuesday that Cohen is a lawyer and "I assume he would know what he's doing" in regard to campaign finance laws.
However, Trump added that the money wasn't a campaign contribution.
"If it were, it's only civil, and even if it's only civil, there was no violation based on what we did. OK?," Trump said.
“Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time.” You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018
....his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018
Asked if he would work with Democrats in Congress, Trump said he would, so long as the political party ceased to investigate him.
"We're going to go down one of two tracks. We're either going to start the campaign and they're going to do presidential harassment. Or we're going to get tremendous amounts of legislation passed working together. There's not a third track," Trump said.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
