Trump says hush money to porn actress was not illegal.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday directly contradicted his earlier statements that he knew of no payment to Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress who says she had an affair with Trump.
Trump said he paid a monthly retainer to his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and suggested that the payment by Cohen to the actress could not be considered a campaign contribution.
The president’s comments reiterated an explosive announcement late Wednesday by one of his recently hired attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, who said on Fox News that the president reimbursed Cohen for the payment to actress Stephanie Clifford, who performs as Stormy Daniels. Though Giuliani described his interview as part of a strategy, the disclosure caught several Trump advisers by surprise, sending some scrambling Thursday morning to determine how to confront the situation.
In three Twitter posts Thursday morning, the president repeated some of what Giuliani said a day earlier, specifically that Trump repaid a $130,000 payment Cohen made to Clifford just days before the presidential election in 2016.
Giuliani and Trump said this removed the question of whether it was a campaign finance violation. Trump also continued to deny the affair.
“Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA,” Trump wrote. “These agreements are very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair, despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.”
The changing accounts about the president, the payment and the pornography actress came as a surprise to the attorneys of Clifford and Cohen and are forcing some of Trump’s advisers to prepare for a new round of questions from the public.
Clifford is suing Cohen to try to be released from the nondisclosure agreement. And Cohen is under federal investigation for bank fraud, raising concerns in the president’s inner circle that Trump’s longtime personal lawyer will cooperate with the government.