Orrin Hatch Dismisses Trump's Suspected Hush Money Payments: 'I Don't Care... He's Doing a Good Job as President'

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) dismissed Donald Trump's suspected campaign finance violations when asked to comment by reporters this week, choosing instead to praise the president for "doing a good job" in office.

CNN reporter Manu Raju revealed in a series of tweets on Monday that Hatch—a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and retiring Utah Republican—said "President Trump before he became president is another world. Since he's become president this economy has charged ahead... And I think we ought to judge him on that basis."

"Hatch dismisses allegations of Trump crimes over hush money. Asked if he had any concerns, Hatch said: 'The Democrats will do anything to hurt this president.'

When Raju told Hatch that the Southern District of New York had brought forth the allegations, he said: 'Okay but I don't care; all I can say is he's doing a good job as President'," Raju wrote on Twitter.

Later in the conversation, Raju asked if he was concerned about the allegations, Hatch said no.

"I don't think he was involved in crimes but even then, you know, you can make anything a crime under the current laws; if you want to you can blow it way out of proportion you can do a lot of things'," Hatch told Raju.

Other GOP senators gave similar responses when questioned by reporters. Some dismissed the New York federal prosecutors' investigation while others questioned the credibility of the allegations.

According to CNN, when asked to comment on the matter, outgoing Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said: "as long as (Michael) Cohen's a liar, I shouldn't give much credibility to what he says."

Republican Sen. John Kennedy also questioned whether Cohen's statements should be relied on before dismissing "Campaign Finance Act violations" as "generally, civil matters."

"Jesus loves him, but everybody else thinks he's an idiot. ... And if I were a prosecutor, I wouldn't base a prosecution on evidence given to me by Mr. Cohen," Kennedy said. "Look I'm not minimizing it, this campaign finance act is important. But No. 1, it's a long way from collusion with a foreign agent to influence the election in 2016, which is what I thought this was about. No. 2, Campaign Finance Act violations are, generally, civil matters."

Earlier this year, Cohen, Trump's attorney, pleaded guilty to facilitating the payment of silence money to women who allegedly had affairs with Trump during the lead up to the 2016 general elections. Cohen stated he did so "at the direction of" Trump while under oath.

On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan filed a sentencing memorandum for Cohen. In it, they alleged—without naming Trump explicitly—that the president is alleged to have directed Cohen to illegally pay two women for silence, violating campaign finance laws.

Today, Trump suggested that the payments made to the two women were a "simple private transaction" and were not from campaign contributions.

"So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution, which it was not," the president tweeted. "Lawyer's liability if he made a mistake, not me. Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!"