TRUMP: GIULIANI NEEDS TO‘ GET HIS FACTS STRAIGHT’ ON STORMY
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump insisted Friday that “we’re not changing any stories” about the 2016 hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, even as he further muddied the explanation for the settlement by suggesting the new face of his legal team needs to “get his facts straight.”
Trump said that Rudy Giuliani, who upended the previous White House defense this week by saying the president knew about his personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s payment to Daniels, was “a great guy but he just started a day ago” and said the former mayor of New York City was still “learning the subject matter.”
The president added that “virtually everything” reported about the payments— which are the subject of swirling legal action and frenzied cable newsbreaks— was wrong. But he declined to elaborate.
Giuliani’s surprise revelation of the president’s payment clashed with Trump’s past statements, created new legal headaches and stunned many in the West Wing. White House aides were blindsided when Giuliani said Wednesday night that the president had repaid Cohen for $ 130,000 thatwas given to Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election about her allegations of an affair with Trump.
Trump called the continuing news stories about Daniels “crap” and said the White House would offer an accounting of the payments. But he offered no details
While Giuliani said the payment to Daniels was “going to turn out to be perfectly legal,” legal experts said the new information raised a number of questions, including whether the money represented repayment of an undisclosed loan or could be seen as reimbursement for a campaign expenditure. Either could be legally problematic.
Giuliani insisted Trump didn’t know the specifics of Cohen’s arrangement with Daniels until recently, telling “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that the president didn’t know all the details until “maybe 10 days ago.” Giuliani told The New York Times that Trump had repaid Cohen $ 35,000 amonth “out of his personal family account” after the campaign was over. He said Cohen received $ 460,000 or $ 470,000 in all for expenses related to Trump.
But no debt to Cohen was listed on Trump’s personal financial disclosure form, which was certified on June 16, 2017. Asked if Trump had filed a fraudulent form, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “I don’t know.”
Giuliani had said the payment was not a campaign finance violation, but also acknowledged that Daniels’ hushed- up allegations could have affected the campaign, saying: “Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton.”
Questions remain about just what Trump knew and when.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, is seeking to be released from a nondisclosure deal she signed in the days before the 2016 election to keep her from talking about a 2006 sexual encounter she said she had with Trump. She has also filed defamation suits against Cohen and Trump.