It was his first tweet since pleading guilty Tuesday to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations.

NEW YORK — Michael Cohen on Sunday expressed his thanks to people who have sent him birthday wishes and who have contributed to his legal defense fund.

Cohen said in court that Trump directed him to arrange payments to buy the silence of two women alleging affairs before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the affairs.

Cohen’s GoFundMe page, dubbed the ‘‘Michael Cohen Truth Fund’’ has raised close to $160,000 from about 3,000 donations. One anonymous donor gave $50,000.


The president’s legal quandary in New York continues to deepen after federal prosecutors there granted immunity last week to Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, and David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally who is the executive of the National Enquirer magazine’s parent company.

News of the cooperation deals came days after former Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies and said he paid hush at Trump’s direction.

The Cohen case is unlikely to lead to any legal consequences for Trump while he is in office, analysts say, although it could prompt calls for his impeachment should Democrats retake the House in November.

Retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz said Sunday that Trump should be more worried about the New York inquiry than about the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Dershowitz, an informal Trump adviser, said in an appearance on ABC News’ ‘‘This Week’’ that the expanding inquiry by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York could spell the greatest peril for Trump because of the lack of constitutional protections for the president at that level.

‘‘I think he has constitutional defenses to the investigation being conducted by Mueller,’’ Dershowitz said. ‘‘But there are no constitutional defenses to what the Southern District is investigating.’’


Trump’s legal team has cited the Constitution in arguing that the president should not sit down for an interview with Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as potential collusion with Trump’s campaign and obstruction of justice.

Trump has routinely denounced the Mueller investigation as a ‘‘witch hunt.’’

Associated Press