Donald Trump reimbursed his long-time lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130 000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday, appearing to contradict the president’s own statements on the matter.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid the sum as part of a “hush agreement.”
“They funneled it through a law firm and the president repaid it,” Giuliani, who recently joined Trump’s legal team, told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, it doesn’t matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months,” Giuliani said.
He added that the payment did not represent a campaign financing violation because it was “not campaign money.”
The sum was wired to Daniels just days before the November 2016 presidential election, and there had been suggestions Cohen could have fallen foul of campaign finance laws because it represented a contribution aimed at preventing negative press from arising.
Speaking to The New York Times shortly after the television appearance, Giuliani said he had spoken with Trump before and after talking to Fox and that the president and his other lawyers knew what the former New York mayor would say.
Giuliani told the paper he had documentation proving Trump had reimbursed the sum, which he said “removes the campaign finance violation” prospect.
“Some time after the campaign is over, they set up a reimbursement, $35 000 a month, out of his personal family account,” Giuliani told the Times, adding that Trump gave Cohen between $460 000 and $470 000 via this method to repay the sum to the porn star as well as “incidental expenses.”
Trump had previously denied all knowledge of the payment to Daniels, before admitting last week that Cohen struck a “deal” with the porn star on his behalf.
Asked by reporters on Air Force One earlier this month about the deal, Trump said: “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael,” he said.
Pressed on whether he knew where Cohen got the money to make the payment, he said: “No, I don’t know. No.”
Giuliani also told The Wall Street Journal Trump was “probably not aware” of the payment at the time it was made, having given Cohen broad “discretion to solve these.”
Daniels filed a lawsuit against the president on Monday for defamation after he trashed her claim that she had been threatened by a man representing Trump in 2011.
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