Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Trump’s lawyer: I did pay porn star £95k hush money
Pal says lies could harm President
DONALD Trump’s personal lawyer has admitted paying a porn star £95,000 weeks before the 2016 election but refuses to say why.
Michael D Cohen insists the huge sum paid to Goodwill Humping star Stormy Daniels was a “private transaction” out of his own pocket.
Ms Daniels was paid to keep quiet about having sex with President Trump, 71, in 2006, it has been claimed.
But Mr Cohen has said his boss “vehemently denies” an affair, said to have occurred just after wife Melania gave birth to son Barron.
Ms Daniels, 38, first claimed she had slept with Trump in a 2011 interview, saying: “The sex was textbook generic. It was nothing crazy. One position, what you’d expect someone of his age to do.”
Asked why he paid the porn star – who has also appeared in The Witches of Breastwick and Operation: Desert Stormy – Mr Cohen said: “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage.
“I’ll always protect Mr Trump.” He added: “Neither the Trump Organization nor Trump campaign was party to the transaction.”
But critics point out that he did not explicitly deny Trump himself knew of the payment.
Answering a watchdog group claim the payment could be seen as undeclared presidential campaign funds, Mr Cohen went on: “Neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.
“The payment to Ms Clifford was lawful, and not a campaign contribution or expenditure.”