Gulf News

Trump lawyer ‘paid porn actress’ money

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President Donald Trump’s personal attorney said Tuesday he paid $130,000 (Dh477,425) out of his own pocket to a porn actress who allegedly had a sexual relationsh­ip with Trump in 2006.

Michael Cohen said in a statement to The New York

Times that he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organisati­on or the Trump campaign for the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Cohen wrote, “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contributi­on or a campaign expenditur­e by anyone.”

Cohen told the Times he had delivered a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog group. Common Cause had asked FEC to investigat­e the source of the $130,000 payment and determine whether it represente­d an excessive campaign contributi­on. Cohen told the Times, “The allegation­s in the complaint are factually unsupporte­d and without legal merit.” The Wall Street Journal

reported in January that Cohen had arranged the payment to Clifford in October 2016 to keep her from publicly discussing the alleged sexual encounter during the presidenti­al campaign. A week later, In Touch magazine published a 2011 interview with Clifford in which she claimed she and Trump had a sexual encounter.

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