Former White House legislative director and current CNN contributor Marc Short said that it’s understandable why President Donald Trump wouldn’t have understood the hush money payment during the campaign to be a violation.

Trump railed against Cohen on Twitter today and put the payment completely on him, calling his former lawyer a “great liability” and saying he never directed him to break the law:

I never directed Michael Cohen to break the law. He was a lawyer and he is supposed to know the law. It is called “advice of counsel,” and a lawyer has great liability if a mistake is made. That is why they get paid. Despite that many campaign finance lawyers have strongly…… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018

….stated that I did nothing wrong with respect to campaign finance laws, if they even apply, because this was not campaign finance. Cohen was guilty on many charges unrelated to me, but he plead to two campaign charges which were not criminal and of which he probably was not… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018

….guilty even on a civil basis. Those charges were just agreed to by him in order to embarrass the president and get a much reduced prison sentence, which he did-including the fact that his family was temporarily let off the hook. As a lawyer, Michael has great liability to me! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018

On CNN this morning, Short defended Trump by saying he probably just didn’t know:

“Well, Erica, I think there’s two separate things. One is to say I did not direct my counsel to break the law, they’re the ones that should know the law. And I think there is a great debate as to whether or not a payment of this sort is actually a violation of campaign finance or not. I think it’s pretty realistic to say that somebody who is a celebrity who gets sued for these things would not know whether that’s a campaign violation or not.”

Anchor Erica Hill immediately responded by noting, “At that point he was no longer a celebrity. When you’re running for President of the United States, these are things that you need to know or surround yourself with people who do know that law.”

Short conceded that’s a “fair point” and added that “clearly Michael Cohen does not know the law.”

You can watch above, via CNN.

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