President Donald Trump on Friday was implicated by prosecutors in two crimes committed by his former attorney Michael Cohen.
But Republicans are mostly shrugging their shoulders.
Democrats are suggesting Trump committed an impeachable offense and could be sent to prison in the aftermath of Friday’s filing from the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, in which federal prosecutors said for the first time that Trump directed Cohen when Cohen committed crimes by paying women for their silence about alleged affairs. Republicans on Monday, however, downplayed the possible danger for Trump when asked about the new allegations, questioning whether Cohen’s story was credible and saying they wanted to reserve judgment until all of the facts come out from special counsel Robert Mueller.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, the retiring Utah Republican and most-senior GOP senator, strongly dismissed the federal government’s allegations that Trump committed two crimes by directing Cohen to make the hush money payments.