Giuliani needs to ‘get facts straight’ on Stormy Daniels, says Trump
President Donald Trump insisted Friday that “we’re not changing any stories’’ about the 2016 hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, even as he further muddied the explanation for the settlement by suggesting the new face of his legal team needs to “get his facts straight.’’
Trump said that Rudy Giuliani, who upended the previous White House defence this week by saying the president knew about his personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s payment to Daniels, was “a great guy but he just started a day ago’’ and said the former mayor of New York City was still “learning the subject matter.’’
The president added that “virtually everything’’ reported about the payments — which are the subject of swirling legal action and frenzied cable newsbreaks — was wrong. But he declined to elaborate.
Giuliani’s surprise revelation of the president’s payment clashed with Trump’s past statements, created new legal headaches and stunned many in the West Wing. White House aides were blindsided when Giuliani said Wednesday night that the president had repaid Cohen for $130,000 that was given to Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election about her allegations of an affair with Trump.
Trump called the continuing news stories about Daniels “crap’’ and said the White House would offer an accounting of the payments. But he offered no details
While Giuliani said the payment to Daniels was “going to turn out to be perfectly legal,’’ legal experts said the new information raised a number of questions, including whether the money represented repayment of an undisclosed loan or could be seen as reimbursement for a campaign expenditure. Either could be legally problematic.
Giuliani insisted Trump didn’t know the specifics of Cohen’s arrangement with Daniels until recently, telling “Fox & Friends’’ on Thursday that the president didn’t know all the details until “maybe 10 days ago.’’ Giuliani told The New York Times that Trump had repaid Cohen $35,000 a month “out of his personal family account’’ after the campaign was over. He said Cohen received $460,000 or $470,000 in all for expenses related to Trump.
But no debt to Cohen was listed on Trump’s personal financial disclosure form, which was certified on June 16, 2017.