Prez backtracks, admits repaying $130G to lawyer
Giuliani: Cohen ‘did his job’
WASHINGTON — President Trump acknowledged reimbursing his attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels — contradicting earlier denials — as his new attorney and former campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani embarked on a media blitz to condemn special counsel Robert Mueller and called on the Justice Department to shut down his investigation.
White House aides, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said they were unaware that Trump reimbursed the payment by Cohen to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, until Giuliani revealed it in a Fox News interview late Wednesday. Daniels has filed a lawsuit seeking to nullify the nondisclosure agreement with Trump, with whom she claims she had a tryst over a decade ago.
Trump confirmed the payment yesterday in a series of tweets, saying it was part of an agreement “to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair.” Trump had previously denied knowledge of any payment, and Cohen had stated that he made the payment without Trump’s knowledge.
The revelation came as Giuliani appeared on multiple news outlets to defend the payment, denying that it amounted to an in-kind campaign contribution that violates federal election law, but admitting that it was done, at least in part, for political reasons.
“Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Giuliani said of Daniels’ accusation on Fox News yesterday morning. “Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”
He also railed against the Mueller probe, calling on the Justice Department “shut this thing down” in a CBS interview and saying that investigators lack “a scintilla of evidence that there was collusion with the Russians to influence the election. This is a ridiculous investigation.”
Meanwhile, Cohen, who is the subject of a federal criminal probe, has had his phone lines monitored by federal investigators, according to an NBC News report last night. Among the calls recorded in a log of Cohen’s calls is at least one call made to the White House. The monitoring involved the collection of data including the numbers made from Cohen’s phones, but does not include what was said.
Federal officials have previously searched the home and offices of Cohen, as well as conducting covert searches of Cohen’s email accounts.
Cohen previously stated that he plans to exert his Fifth Amendment right against selfincrimination if he is called to testify before a grand jury.