Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch is backtracking after saying this week that he wasn't concerned that prosecutors have implicated President Donald Trump in a crime.
The Republican senator said in a statement that he spoke "imprudently" in a CNN hallway interview Tuesday.
He said the interview was unplanned and "I made comments about allegations against the president that were irresponsible and a poor reflection on my lengthy record of dedication to the rule of law."
During the interview, Hatch dismissed federal prosecutors who said Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make hush money payments to two women as a way to quash potential sex scandals during the campaign.
"Well I think the Democrats will do anything to hurt this president, anything," Hatch said. "What happened before he was elected president you know is one thing. But since he's been elected the economy's done well, our country's moving ahead, we're in better shape than we were before he was president. And I think we ought to judge him on that basis."
When the CNN reporter, Manu Raju, pointed out that it wasn't Democrats but federal prosecutors making the case, Hatch said, "I don't care. All I can say is I think he's doing a good job as president."
Hatch, 84, who is retiring from Congress at the end of the year, added that he didn't think Trump was involved in crimes.
"But even then, you know, you can make anything a crime under the current laws if you want to," he said.
In the written statement Friday, Hatch said he "has long believed our criminal code is simply too large" but regretted the comments at a time when faith in many institutions is at an all-time low.
"I don't believe the president broke the law, but one of the core principles of our country is that no one is above the law," Hatch said. "That means anyone who does break the law should face appropriate consequences."
Cohen was sentenced on to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to several charges, including campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Federal prosecutors in New York have said Trump directed Cohen to arrange the payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in the run-up to the 2016 campaign.
Hatch said in the statement that said he believes special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation should move forward, along with the New York case involving Cohen.
"While I believe the president has succeeded in a number of important policy areas, that success is separate from the validity of these investigations, which I believe should be allowed to run their course," Hatch said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he was considering “winding down” military operations in the Middle East even as the United States is sending three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the region.
Trump’s post Friday on social media followed an Iranian threat to attack recreational and tourist sites worldwide and another day of the airstrikes and drone and missile attacks that have engulfed the region.
The mixed messages from the United States came after another climb in oil prices plunged the U.S. stock market, and was followed by a Trump administration announcement it was lifting sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling soaring fuel prices.
The 3-week-old war has shown no signs of abating, with Israel saying Iran continued to fire missiles at it early Saturday, while Saudi Arabia said it downed 20 drones in just a couple of hours in the country's eastern region, which is home to major oil installations.
The attacks came a day after Israeli airstrikes hit in Tehran as Iranians celebrated the Persian New Year, known as Nowruz, a normally festive holiday that has been muted by the war.
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs. There have been no public signs of any such uprising and no end to the war in sight.
On social media, Trump said, “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”
That seemed at odds with his administration’s move to bolster its firepower in the region and request another $200 billion from Congress to fund the war.
The United States is deploying three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, an official told The Associated Press. Two other U.S. officials confirmed that ships were deploying, without saying where they were headed. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
Days earlier the U.S. redirected another group of amphibious assault ships carrying another 2,500 Marines from the Pacific to the Middle East. The Marines will join more than 50,000 U.S. troops already in the region.
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but also has asserted that he retains all options.
Iran’s top military spokesperson, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide will not be safe for the country’s enemies. The threat renewed concerns that Tehran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised Iranians’ steadfastness in the face of war in a written statement read on Iranian television to mark Nowruz. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he became supreme leader following Israeli strikes that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and reportedly wounded him.
With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities have sustained in the punishing U.S. and Israeli strikes, which began Feb. 28 — or even who was truly in charge of the country. But Iran’s attacks are still choking off oil supplies and raising food and fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.
The Israeli military said early Saturday that it began a wave of strikes targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Smoke was seen rising, fires broke out and loud explosions were heard across parts of central Beirut, hours after the Israeli army renewed evacuation warnings for seven neighborhoods.
Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million, according to the Lebanese government.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran during the war. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missiles and four others have died in the occupied West Bank. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, has soared during the fighting and was around $106 per barrel, up from roughly $70 before the war.
The newly announced U.S. pause in sanctions applies to Iranian oil loaded on ships as of Friday and is set to end April 19.
The new move does not increase the flow of production, a central factor in the surging prices. Iran has managed to evade U.S. sanctions for years, suggesting that much of what it exports already reaches buyers.
Looking for ways to boost global oil supplies during the Iran war, the Trump administration has previously paused sanctions on certain Russian oil shipments for 30 days, which critics said rewarded Moscow while having only a modest effect on markets.
Price reported from Washington, and Watson from San Diego. AP journalists Collin Binkley in West Palm Beach, Florida and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed.
A man prays over the graves of Hezbollah fighters killed, at Al-Hawraa Zaynab Cemetery during Eid al-Fitr in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Two women and a child holding an Iranian flag walk toward the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque to attend Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranians reach toward the coffins as they follow the funeral procession of Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib and, according to Iranian officials, his wife and daughter, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranians follow a truck carrying the coffins of Iran's intelligence minister Esmail Khatib and, according to Iranian officials, his wife and daughter, during a funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
