President Donald Trump claimed Thursday that he �never directed� his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, to break the law. And he�s insisting that he �did nothing wrong.�

Trump�s comments – in an interview with Fox News Channel�s Harris Faulkner and several morning tweets – came a day after Cohen was sentenced to prison for crimes including arranging hush money payments to conceal Trump�s alleged inappropriate relationships to help his 2016 White House bid, a campaign finance violation. Cohen and federal prosecutors say the payments were made at Trump�s direction.

Trump, in the Fox interview, insisted the campaign finance charges Cohen pleaded guilty to are �not criminal� and were included solely to �embarrass him.�

And he said he�d �made a mistake� hiring Cohen years ago.

Earlier, Trump tweeted that Cohen �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.�

Trump had originally denied any knowledge of the payments, but later changed his tune, arguing that the payments weren�t campaign contributions and therefore weren�t illegal.

Prosecutors have implicated Trump in a crime, but haven�t directly accused him of one.

Trump also suggested, without providing evidence, that Cohen cooperated with prosecutors to kept his father-in-law or wife out of trouble and adds that, �In retrospect,� he �made a mistake� by hiring Cohen.

(AP)