Trump says repaid lawyer for porn star hush money
WASHINGTON: US president Donald Trump on Thursday said his long-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen was reimbursed the $130,000 he had paid adult film star Stormy Daniels under an agreement to “stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair” with the president more than a decade ago.
The president went on to say in a string posts on Twitter the payment to Cohen was made through a monthly retainer and “not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign and money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no role in this transaction”.
The president’s remarks came hours after Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor and new member of Trump’ legal team, told Fox News in a stunning interview that the president had reimbursed Cohen. “The president repaid it,” Giuliani said, sending shockwaves through the capital and New York city, which is home to the president, the former mayor, the Trump Organization and Cohen.
But he seemed uncertain if the president knew of the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. He said Trump “didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this”.
Cohen had earlier claimed he had taken the money from his home-equity line and that he had not been reimbursed by Trump or the Trump organization.
The long-time personal lawyer, who ha also called himself a fixer for Trump, is under a federal investigation for possible bank fraud and campaign finance law violation for this payment. FBI investigators had looked for relevant documents and material during a raid of Cohen’s home, hotel suite and office in New York in April.