RUDY COMMENTS CAUSE STORM?
Trump’s newest attorney makes waves with comment on porn star payout.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump insisted Thursday his reimbursement of a 2016 hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels had nothing to do with his election campaign. But the surprise revelation of the president’s payment clashed with his past statements, created new legal headaches and stunned many in the West Wing.
White House aides were blindsided when Trump’s recently added attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said Wednesday night that the president had repaid Michael Cohen for $130,000 that was given to Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election about her allegations of an affair with Trump. Giuliani’s revelation, which appeared to contradict Trump’s past statements, came as the president’s newly configured outside legal team pursued his defense, apparently with zero coordination with the West Wing.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she learned that Trump had repaid the hush money from the interview with Giuliani on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.” Staffers’ phones began to buzz within moments. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley, who had pre-taped an interview with Fox News earlier Wednesday evening, was suddenly summoned to return for a live interview.
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 a month “out of his personal family account” after the election. 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 June 16, 2017. Asked if Trump had filed a fraudulent form, Sanders said: “I don’t know.”
.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.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One several weeks ago, Trump said he did not know about the payment or where the money came from. In a phone interview with “Fox and Friends” last week, however, he appeared to muddy the waters, saying that Cohen represented him in the “crazy Stormy Daniels deal.”
Sanders said Thursday that Trump “eventually learned” about the payment, but she did not offer details.
For all the controversy Giuliani stirred up, s ome Trump supporters said it was wise to get the payment acknowledgement out in the open.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, “You know, there’s an old saying in the law, ‘Hang a lantern on your problems.’ … So the fact is that Rudy has to go out there now and clean it up. That’s what lawyers get hired to do.”
Giuliani told CNN on Thursday that the announcement of Trump’s repayment of the hush money was a planned strategy, saying: “You won’t see daylight between me and the president.”