Do We Know That Trump's 35,000 Check Is For Hush Money Reimbursement

A copy of a check paid to Michael Cohen by President Trump is displayed as Cohen, former attorney and fixer for Trump, testifies before the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill.

President Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen implicated Trump directly in the payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels. In August 2017, Trump wrote a check to Cohen for $35,000, he testified, submitting a copy of one of the checks into evidence.

"The president of the United States thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws," Cohen testified.

Cohen did not say that Trump was aware that the payments would violate campaign finance laws. But he did testify that Trump directed him to make the payment from Cohen's personal home equity line of credit in order to prevent the money from being traced back to Trump or his presidential campaign.

Prosecutors have to prove that a person had knowledge that a payment would violate the law in order to prosecute a violation of campaign finance laws. Cohen also testified that Trump told him to lie to his wife, Melania.

"He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did. Lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person, and I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that."

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Chris Megerian covers the White House from the Los Angeles Times' D.C. bureau. He previously wrote about the Russia investigation.

Del Quentin Wilber is an assistant editor in the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau. Before moving into an editing role, he was an enterprise and investigative reporter, focused on criminal justice and national security matters. An award-winning reporter and author, he previously worked for the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of "Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan," a national bestseller, and "A Good Month for Murder: The Inside Story of a Homicide Squad."

Jennifer Haberkorn covers Congress in Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. She has reported from Washington since 2005, spending much of that time roaming the halls of the U.S. Capitol. Before arriving at The Times, Haberkorn spent eight years at Politico writing about the 2010 healthcare law, a story that took her to Congress, the states, healthcare clinics and courtrooms around the country. She also covered Congress and local business news for the Washington Times. Haberkorn is a native of the Chicago area and graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis.