WH: Media giving credence to a convicted criminal

(14 Dec 2018) The White House is dismissing the accusations from President Donald Trump's former fixer that Trump directed hush money payments. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley on Friday blasted the media for taking Michael Cohen seriously and "giving credence to a convicted criminal." Cohen gave an interview to ABC hours earlier in which he said that Trump directed the payments in 2016 so the women's stories would not damage his election chances. The former attorney this week was sentenced to three years in prison. Prosecutors have indicated that Cohen made the payments at Trump's behalf. Gidley called Cohen a "self-admitted liar" and said "there are documents to prove it" but did not elaborate. Trump has denied he directed Cohen to break the law. During the question and answer gaggle with reporters, Gidley responded to the death of a 7-year-old migrant girl while in custody at the US border. He said, "Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child off the trek through Mexico to get to this country? No." Gidley also addressed The Wall Street Journal's report that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan is investigating whether some of the top donors to the president's inauguration committee made contributions in exchange for political favors and access to Trump's administration_ a potential violation of federal corruption laws. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...