Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign to silence two women who claimed affairs with him, saying the payments did not violate campaign finance laws because they were not funded by his campaign.

His attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two felony campaign finance violations surrounding the payments: making an excessive campaign contribution and causing a corporation to make an unlawful contribution -- and said he knowingly violated the law at Trump's direction. Trump claimed on Wednesday he only knew of the payments to the women "later on," though he did not specify when.

"They weren't taken out of campaign finance, that's the big thing. That's a much bigger thing. Did they come out of the campaign? They didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me," Trump said in an interview Wednesday with Fox News, referring to reimbursements his company the Trump Organization made to Cohen.

"They didn't come out of the campaign and that's big," Trump said. "It's not even a campaign violation."

Trump for the second time on Wednesday argued a campaign violation by President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign was far more serious, even though that violation involved missed reporting deadlines and involved a civil fine -- not felonies as in Cohen's case.

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