It's "laughable" that the media will give credence to President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, assistant White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said Friday.
"Quite frankly, for the media to give credence to a convicted criminal who has lied on multiple occasions and admitted doing just that is laughable," Gidley told Fox News' "America's Newsroom," responding to claims the president's ex-fixer made in an interview with ABC News."The president has maintained and said many times he has never instructed Michael Cohen to do anything illegal. We stand by that. "
In the interview, Cohen maintained that Trump had directed him to make hush payments to to women who were alleging they'd had affairs with him, out of concern about how it would affect his chances in the 2016 presidential election.
The White House also is waiting for information from documents concerning the interaction of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the FBI, and Gidley said that he thinks the facts will bear themselves out.
"Most Americans are concerned" about how the FBI obtained information from Flynn, who pleaded guilty last December to a felony charge of lying to federal investigators about his communications with Russia, Gidley said.
Gidley also commented on reports from The Wall Street Journal that the president's inaugural committee is also currently being investigated by federal prosecutors, saying that the probe has nothing to do with Trump or his administration.
"During the transition the president had one focus, to come into office, set up a government and right the wrongs of the Barack Obama administration," said Gidley. "He did just that. On inauguration night everyone knows the president of the United States has one task, to show up, thank everybody for their service to help him get elected, and to dance with the first lady."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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