Trump may plead the Fifth
Rudy Giuliani, the latest addition to President Trump’s legal team, said yesterday it was possible that a porn star who was paid to stay quiet about an alleged affair with the president before his election in 2016 was not the only woman to have been silenced in such a manner.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, also declined to rule out the possibility that Trump would assert his Fifth Amendment right not to testify against himself in the Russia investigation.
He astonished Washington last week when he revealed that Trump had reimbursed Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer, for US$130,000 that was paid to Stephanie Clifford, an adult film actress who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels.
The money was meant to secure her silence about an alleged affair with Trump that Clifford says happened in 2006.
Asked yesterday if Cohen had paid other women to keep them quiet, Giuliani told ABC News: ‘‘I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes.’’
White House advisers have distanced themselves from the deal with Clifford, which experts say may have broken campaign finance laws.
Asked if she knew of other payments, Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to the president, said: ‘‘I do not. They did not cross my desk as campaign manager.’’
Clifford appeared on Saturday Night Live in a sketch that also featured Hollywood actors Ben Stiller, Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johansson. A fictional Trump, played by Baldwin, asked Clifford: ‘‘Just tell me, what do you need for this all to go away?’’ She replied: ‘‘A resignation. I know you don’t believe in climate change, but a storm’s a’coming, baby.’’
Federal investigators in New York have raided Cohen’s home, office and a hotel room, and are scrutinising his finances and business dealings.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Cohen arranged to have access to as much as US$774,000 during the 2016 presidential campaign as he sought to solve potential problems for Trump. He accessed the money by taking out credit against an apartment he owned and by arranging a new mortgage on a flat owned by his parents-in-law in Trump World Tower in New York.
The Saturday Night Live sketch alluded to Cohen’s legal woes.
A fictional Cohen, played by Ben Stiller, was asked during a phone call to the president: ‘‘How are you holding up in prison?’’ ‘‘I’m not in prison!’’ Stiller replied. ‘‘Well, give it a couple of weeks,’’ the fictional Trump shot back.
Giuliani told ABC News yesterday that Trump – the real one – was open to being interviewed by Robert Mueller, who is leading the special counsel investigation into whether the Trump campaign co-ordinated with the Kremlin but that he was advising against it. ‘‘Every lawyer in America says [he] would be a fool to testify,’’ he said.
He also suggested that Trump would not have to comply if Mueller issued a subpoena demanding that he give evidence. ‘‘He’s the president of the United States,’’ Giuliani said.
Any dispute over a subpoena would probably make its way to the Supreme Court, which has never given a clear ruling on whether a president can be compelled to speak under oath. Giuliani was also asked whether it was acceptable to lie to the press. He said: ‘‘Oh, gee, I don’t know, you know a few presidents who did that. ‘‘I don’t think this president has done that.’’
- The Times