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Hatch Shrugs Off Allegations Implicating Trump In Felony Crimes

Photo of Pres. Trump and Sen. Hatch.
Julia Ritchey / KUER
President Trump greets Sen. Orrin Hatch during a visit to Salt Lake on Dec. 4, 2017.

Top GOP Senators like Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch are not fretting over new allegations tying President Donald Trump to campaign finance crimes.

“Okay but I don’t care,” Hatch told a CNN reporter in response to a question on Monday. “All I can say is he’s doing a good job as president.”

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York filed charges on Friday that implicate the president, and his longtime fixer Michael Cohen, in multiple felonies. The charges relate to hush money paid to women to suppress stories about their alleged affairs with Trump during the presidential campaign.

Hatch said he doesn’t think Trump was involved in crimes, and even if he was, “you can make anything a crime under current law.”

Hatch, who’s retiring next month, went on to add that people should judge Trump on the strong economy and not things from his past.

“The Democrats will do anything to hurt this president,” he said.

His comments echoed other longtime GOP senators, including Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who said it was hard to believe information provided by Cohen, whom he called a “liar.”

Julia joined KUER in 2016 after a year reporting at the NPR member station in Reno, Nev. During her stint, she covered battleground politics, school overcrowding, and any story that would take her to the crystal blue shores of Lake Tahoe. Her work earned her two regional Edward R. Murrow awards. Originally from the mountains of Western North Carolina, Julia graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008 with a degree in journalism. She’s worked as both a print and radio reporter in several states and several countries — from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Dakar, Senegal. Her curiosity about the American West led her to take a spontaneous, one-way road trip to the Great Basin, where she intends to continue preaching the gospel of community journalism, public radio and podcasting. In her spare time, you’ll find her hanging with her beagle Bodhi, taking pictures of her food and watching Patrick Swayze movies.
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