Trump denies directing Cohen to break the law, day after Individual-1 sentencing

On December 12, 2018, a federal judge sentenced Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen to three years in prison for campaign finance violations, tax evasion, and lying to Congress. Federal prosecutors' sentencing memo said the hush-money payments to two women were made "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump, identified in court filings as Individual-1, and Cohen told the court Trump's "dirty deeds" led him to "choose a path of darkness over light." The next day, Trump tweeted "I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law," and argued in follow-up tweets that Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign-finance counts that "were not criminal" in order to "embarrass the president" and secure a lighter sentence. Trump's denial placed him in direct and public tension with the government's own sentencing findings about his role in the scheme.