Michael Cohen acknowledged that his lawyers sent the Federal Election Commission a “misleading statement” on Feb. 8, 2018.
“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly,” the letter to the FEC read.
Cohen described the statement as “misleading” because the reimbursement came from Trump directly.
“It was the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust or Donald Trump himself,” Cohen told jurors, though he said he “omitted” that from the letter to the FEC.
Cohen said Trump approved the statement.
“That’s a true statement, but it’s deceptive, it’s misleading,” Cohen said. He did so “in order to protect Mr. Trump, stay on message, demonstrate my continued loyalty,” he said.
As Cohen discussed his conduct related to the FEC, Judge Merchan offered a limited instruction to the jury, telling them that the testimony can be used to provide context for the surrounding events and help determine Cohen’s credibility — but not Trump’s guilt.