Trump’s old tweets about John Edwards provide evidence he knew he was committing a crime: CNN

On Thursday, President Donald Trump appeared on Fox News to project confidence about the pile of bad news his administration is struggling with this week.

Among other things, Trump tried to distance himself from Michael Cohen and claimed that he had not violated any campaign finance laws.

"They weren’t taken out of campaign finance, that’s the big thing," Trump said during an interview on FOX & Friends that aired Thursday morning. "That’s a much bigger thing. Did they come out of the campaign? They didn’t come out of the campaign; they came from me."

But the campaign violation doesn't stem from the origins of the funds. In fact, the issue is whether a sum of money exceeding legal donation limits was paid to sway the outcome of the election—in this case, by shutting up Stormy Daniels about her affair with the president.

For federal prosecutors to prove a crime had been committed, they have to demonstrate intent; in other words, one of the things they have to show is that Donald Trump knew he was breaking the law.

As political reporter Rachael Bade pointed out on CNN Thursday, there's evidence that reveals Trump knew a crime was committed.

"It probably won't be that hard to do that, given that he tweeted a bunch about John Edwards and his mistress situation. When he paid money to keep that quiet he got in trouble with the law. The president back then, you know, he'd tweet about that, so clearly he knew that was not allowed."

Although at the time Trump tweeted in support of Edwards, it nevertheless shows that he was aware of the federal government's case against him.

"He is worried," Bade said, pointing to Trump's late night tweet claiming he's the victim of a rigged witch hunt.