Trump undercuts Giuliani over payments to Stormy

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump undercut his lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Friday, and said the former New York mayor will eventually get the facts right regarding a payment to a pornographic actress who said she had an affair with Trump.

“And virtually everything said has been said incorrectly, and it’s been said wrong, or it’s been covered wrong by the press,” Trump said.

Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal team last month, “just started a day ago,” Trump said Friday as he left to attend a National Rifle Association convention.

“He is a great guy,” Trump said. “He’ll get his facts straight.”

It was the first time the president addressed the inconsistent narrative about the payment made by his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels. Trump did not offer any details Friday to clarify the confusion, but said, “It’s actually very simple. But there has been a lot of misinformation.”

Giuliani released a statement Friday trying to clarify the confusion, saying that his “references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president’s knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters.”

The president contradicted himself when, this week, he said he paid back Cohen for the $130,000 US given to Clifford just days before the election. Last month, the president said he did not know anything about the transaction.

Giuliani kicked off the confusion about the payment with an interview on Fox News on Wednesday. In a series of Twitter posts the next morning, the president backed up what Giuliani said. But, on Friday, he added more confusion by saying that everything said “has been said incorrectly.”