--- title: Donald Trump Distances Himself From Lawyer After Rape Remarks description: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that his top aide was "speaking for himself" when he said spousal rape is not illegal. canonical: https://time.com/3976201/donald-trump-michael-cohen-rape/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-29T01:19:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:10.603Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump on Lawyer's Rape Remarks: 'He's Speaking for Himself' og:description: Trump said he disagreed with an aide's comments that spousal rape is not illegal og:url: https://time.com/3976201/donald-trump-michael-cohen-rape/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8021b9e69f23cb32/69885cede53aba94634ded10/donald-trump27.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump on Lawyer's Rape Remarks: 'He's Speaking for Himself' twitter:description: Trump said he disagreed with an aide's comments that spousal rape is not illegal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8021b9e69f23cb32/69885cede53aba94634ded10/donald-trump27.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump on Lawyer's Rape Remarks: 'He's Speaking for Himself' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jul 29, 2015 1:19 AM UTC  Republican presidential hopeful businessman Donald Trump leaves a press conference following a rally on July 25, 2015 in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Republican presidential hopeful businessman Donald Trump leaves a press conference following a rally on July 25, 2015 in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Jack Linshi](https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jul 29, 2015 1:19 AM UTC Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump distanced himself on Tuesday from his lawyer and top aide, Michael Cohen, who had sparked controversy for saying [sexual intercourse with a spouse can never legally be considered rape.](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/ex-wife-donald-trump-made-feel-violated-during-sex.html) “When I first saw \[Cohen make the comments\] I said, ‘Wow.’ You know it is something I disagree with. But that’s the way it is. He’s speaking for himself. He’s not speaking for me obviously,” Trump said in an [interview](//www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/07/28/donald-trump-michael-cohen-don-lemon-cnn-tonight.cnn) with CNN on Tuesday. Spousal rape has been against the law in all 50 states since the early 1990s. Cohen [apologized earlier](http://time.com/3974560/donald-trump-rape-ivana-michael-cohen/) Tuesday for his remarks, which were a response to a reporter’s question about a 1989 allegation against Trump that was later retracted. “In my moment of shock and anger, I made an inarticulate comment — which I do not believe — and which I apologize for entirely,” he said. “You have to understand Michael was extremely angry,” Trump said, echoing his special counsel’s apology. “Who knows what he said. … But assuming he said it, yeah, I disagree with that.” \[[_CNN_](//www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/07/28/donald-trump-michael-cohen-don-lemon-cnn-tonight.cnn)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3976201/donald-trump-michael-cohen-rape/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3976201/donald-trump-michael-cohen-rape/"},"headline":"Donald Trump on Lawyer's Rape Remarks: 'He's Speaking for Himself'","datePublished":"2015-07-29T01:19:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:10.603Z","description":"Trump blasted his aide's comment that \"you cannot rape your spouse\"","url":"https://time.com/3976201/donald-trump-michael-cohen-rape/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8021b9e69f23cb32/69885cede53aba94634ded10/donald-trump27.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8021b9e69f23cb32/69885cede53aba94634ded10/donald-trump27.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Donald Trump","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3976201/donald-trump-michael-cohen-rape/","name":"Donald Trump on Lawyer's Rape Remarks: 'He's Speaking for Himself'"}}]}] ```