Washington: Shaken and facing a prison term, President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer said on Friday that Trump directed him to buy the silence of two women during the 2016 campaign because he was concerned about how their stories of alleged affairs with him "would affect the election". He says Trump knew the payments were wrong.

Michael Cohen, who for more than a decade was a key power player in the Trump Organisation and a fixture in Trump's political life, said he "gave loyalty to someone who, truthfully, does not deserve loyalty". Cohen spoke in an interview with ABC that aired Friday on Good Morning America.

Cohen said that "of course" Trump knew it was wrong to make the hush-money payments, but he did not provide any specific evidence or detail in the interview. Federal law requires that any payments made "for the purposes of influencing" an election must be reported in campaign finance disclosures.

Speaking to the ABC, Cohen appeared shaken over the series of events that swiftly took him from Trump's "fixer" to a man facing three years in prison.