Lanny Davis said in an interview that aired Monday on “Rising” that hush money payments made before the 2016 election to two women alleging to have had affairs with President Trump were similar to how Russia “corrupted the democratic” process through an election interference campaign.
“This was about avoiding disclosure, so the election prospects wouldn’t be injured, and that’s a violation, and it’s more than a felony,” Davis, an adviser and former attorney to Michael Cohen, told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on Friday. “It’s a corruption of the democratic process in a way similar to what the Russians did.”
Davis’s comments come less than a week after Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, was sentenced to three years in prison for a series of crimes, including campaign finance violations tied to a scheme to pay off adult-film star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal in an effort to silence their allegations of having affairs with Trump.
Cohen, who is cooperating in special counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe into Russian election meddling and any possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow, says Trump pushed him to make payments to Davis and McDougal.
“He [Cohen] knew what they were doing was wrong, and that Mr. Trump knew what they were doing was wrong because it was about the election,” Davis told Simmons. “No question it was motivated about keeping that information from the American people, which is why I say it was hush money that corrupted the election in 2016.”
— Julia Manchester
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