what was said

Ainsley Earhardt, “Fox & Friends” host: “Did you direct him to make the payments?”

President Trump: “He made the deal. He made the deals.”

the facts

This is misleading.

Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer, made hush money payments before the 2016 election to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Mr. Trump: Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, and Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels. Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges on Tuesday.

Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Mr. Cohen acted on his own is contradicted by court filings and by Mr. Cohen himself.

The events are described in court documents that do not name the two women. However, both Ms. McDougal and Ms. Clifford publicly discussed their stories; additionally, Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, has verified their identities in news media interviews.

Here’s the timeline:

August 2015: American Media Inc., the owner of The National Enquirer, agreed to help identify negative stories about Mr. Trump’s alleged affairs “so they could be purchased and their publication avoided” in coordination with Mr. Cohen and “one or more members” of the Trump campaign.

June 2016: The tabloid began negotiating with Ms. McDougal for the rights to her story at Mr. Cohen’s “urging” and with his promise that the company would be reimbursed.

August 2016: A.M.I. agreed to pay Ms. McDougal $150,000.

October 2016: Mr. Cohen formed a shell company to reimburse A.M.I. $125,000 for the payment to Ms. McDougal. That same month, Mr. Cohen agreed to pay Ms. Clifford $130,000 for her silence.

2017: Mr. Cohen received monthly payments that totaled $420,000 from the Trump Organization, which included the reimbursement for his payment to Ms. Clifford and a bonus. Mr. Cohen sent the company phony monthly invoices for legal services under a nonexistent retainer agreement.

In court, Mr. Cohen said he made those payments at Mr. Trump’s direction.

“I and the C.E.O. of a media company at the request of the candidate worked together to keep an individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign from publicly disclosing this information,” he said on Tuesday, referring to the payment to Ms. McDougal.