New York Daily News

Eh, so maybe he paid off lot more women

- BY TERENCE CULLEN and ERIN DURKIN

HIGH-OCTANE gasbag Rudy Giuliani’s best defense of President Trump on Sunday was the stunning declaratio­n that porn star Stormy Daniels might not be the only woman Trump fixer Michael Cohen has paid to keep quiet about alleged sexual romps.

There actually could be several women who got paid off, he suggested condescend­ingly, because that’s what rich men do.

Defending the $130,000 hush money Daniels (bottom left) received to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump, the former New York mayor brushed it off as a common arrangemen­t for wealthy men like Trump.

“I have no knowledge of that, but I would think if it was necessary, yes,” Giuliani said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” when asked if Cohen (bottom right) had paid other women to keep their mouths shut about alleged trysts with Trump. “He made payments for the President, or he’s conducted business for the President.”

Daniels’ attorney later denounced Giuliani’s defense of the President as a “train wreck” and an “unmitigate­d disaster.”

Cohen paid Daniels, an adult film actress who says she had sex with Trump in 2006, the $130,000 shortly before the 2016 presidenti­al election in exchange for her silence.

Giuliani, a recent and high-profile addition to the President’s legal team, said last week that Trump reimbursed the money — contradict­ing previous statements by Trump that he didn’t know about the payment.

“The agreement with Michael Cohen, as far as I know, is a longstandi­ng agreement that Michael Cohen takes care of situations like this, then gets paid for them sometimes,” Giuliani said Sunday.

If Cohen paid the hush money himself and didn’t get paid back, it could add up to an illegal campaign contributi­on. “It was not a campaign contributi­on because it would have been done anyway. This is the kind of thing that I’ve settled for celebritie­s and famous people. Every lawyer that does that kind of work has,” he said. “It was to settle a personal issue that would be embarrassi­ng to him and his wife.”

According to Giuliani, Trump eventually paid Cohen back for both the hush money and a series of other expenses “that had nothing to do with Stormy Daniels.” He could not say when Trump learned of the payment to the actress.

Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, also appearing on “This Week,” said he was taken aback by Giuliani’s performanc­e.

“It’s an absolute unmitigate­d disaster for Rudy Giuliani and the President. It’s a train wreck. I can’t believe that that actually just happened,” he said. “They are making it up as they go along. They don’t know what to say because they’ve lost track of the truth.”

Avenatti says he has been contacted by other women who say they were paid off by Trump, though he is still vetting the credibilit­y of their accounts.

“I think at the end of the day, there’s going to be evidence of such payments,” he said.

“According to Rudy Giuliani, this was basically commonplac­e. The President had effectivel­y an extramarit­al-affair slush fund that was administer­ed by Michael Cohen and that he would just be expected to take care of these things. They were a regular occurrence. I mean, that in and of itself should be very disturbing.”

Trump told reporters on Air Force One last month that he had not known about Cohen’s payoff.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the President, his former campaign manager and the person who redefined “lies” as “alternativ­e facts,” argued Sunday that Trump meant he didn’t know about the deal at the time it was signed in October 2016.

“His attorney had discretion over funds and made the best call that he had,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I know that the President has said he didn’t know it when it occurred.”

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States