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Michael Cohen Unloads, Says Trump is Lying About Russia, and Mueller Has ‘Substantial Info’ to Corroborate Him: WATCH

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Michael Cohen

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for his first interview since being sentenced to prison for three years for campaign finance violations related to hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, lying to Congress, and financial crimes. Cohen is scheduled to report to prison on March 6.

Cohen unloaded about working with Trump and the person the president has become. He said that Robert Mueller has a “substantial amount of information” to corroborate the fact that he is telling the truth. He also accused the president of lying about his campaign’s interaction with Russia.

Stephanopoulos asked about Trump’s claim that Cohen pleaded guilty to embarrass him.

Replied Cohen: “First of all, it is absolutely not true. I did not do it to embarrass the president. He knows the truth. I know the truth, many people know the truth. Under no circumstances do I want to embarrass the president of the United States of America.”

He added: “The truth is, I told the truth. I took responsibility for my actions. And instead of him taking responsibility for his actions, what does he do? He attacks my family. And after yesterday, again being before the court and taking the responsibility and receiving a sentence of 36 months, the only thing he could do is to tweet about my family?”

Stephanopoulos followed up with a question about Trump’s claim that Cohen is lying about the president to protect his family.

Said Cohen: “Inaccurate. He knows the truth, I know the truth, others know the truth, and here is the truth: The people of the United States of America, people of the world, don’t believe what he is saying. The man doesn’t tell the truth. And it is sad that I should take responsibility for his dirty deeds.”

Asked why he lied for so long, Cohen replied: Out of loyalty. Out of loyalty to him. I followed a bad path and hence how we started this conversation. I have my freedom, and I will not be the villain — as I told you once before — I will not be the villain of his story.

Asked about Trump’s claim that he never directed Cohen to do anything wrong, Cohen replied: ” I don’t think there is anybody that believes that. First of all, nothing at the Trump organization was ever done unless it was run through Mr. Trump. He directed me, as I said in my allocution and I said as well in the plea, he directed me to make the payments, he directed me to become involved in these matters. Including the one with McDougal, which was really between him and David Pecker and then David Pecker’s counsel. I just reviewed the documents … in order to protect him. I gave loyalty to someone who truthfully does not deserve loyalty.”

Cohen added that Trump knew it was wrong to make the hush money payments and felt that it would help his election.

Said Cohen: “You have to remember at what point in time that this matter came about — two weeks or so before the election. So, yes, he was very concerned about how this would affect the election.”

Cohen added that he knew what he was doing was wrong, and that Trump is still lying: ” I am angry at myself because I knew what I was doing was wrong. I stood up before the world yesterday and I accepted the responsibility for my actions. The actions that I gave to a man, who, as I also said in my allocution, I was loyal to. I should not be the only one taking responsibility for his actions… it was a blind loyalty. It was to a man I admired, but I do not know the answer to it. And I am angry at myself. My family is disappointed that they’ve taught me, my mother, father, right from wrong. And I didn’t display good judgment.”

Cohen said that it’s false that he didn’t have any money before working for Trump or that he was driven by greed or ambition.

Asked Stephanopoulos: “You pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. Why should we believe you now?”

Said Cohen: “Because the Special Counsel stated emphatically that the information that I gave to them was credible and helpful. There’s a substantial amount of information that they possess that corroborates the fact that I am telling the truth…I am done with the lying. I am done being loyal to President Trump. And my first loyalty belongs to my wife, my daughter, my son, and this country.”

Cohen went on to say that the Trump in the White House is “a very different individual” from the person he worked at at Trump Tower: “I think the pressure of the job is much more than what he thought it was going to be. It’s not like the Trump organization where he would bark out orders and people would blindly follow what he wanted done. There’s a system here, he doesn’t understand the system, and it’s sad because the country has never been more divisive. And one of the hopes that I have out of the punishment that I’ve received, as well as the cooperation that I have given, I will be remembered in history as helping to bring this country back together.”

Cohen also said that Trump is not telling the truth about Russia.

He said he would tell Trump to “lay off Twitter, run the country the way that we all thought that you would, be able to take the Democrats, Republicans, bring them together and bring the country together instead of dividing the country.”

Cohen wouldn’t say how he thinks this ends for Trump and that he’s still cooperating with the special counsel’s office.

He concluded: “It’s never good to be on the wrong side of the president of the United States of America. But somehow or another, this task has now fallen onto my shoulders, and, as I also stated, that I will spend the rest of my life in order to fix the mistake that I made.”

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