Politics
Trump Changes Story on Stormy Daniels Hush Money, Denies Affair
By
Toluse Olorunnipa
and
Terrence Dopp
May 2, 2018, 7:28 PM PDT Updated on May 3, 2018, 5:06 AM PDT
President says he reimbursed attorney Cohen with retainer
Trump says arrangement is ‘very common among celebrities’
Giuliani Comments on Hush Money to Stormy Daniels
Giuliani says Hush money paid to Stormy Daniels to silence her alleged affair with Trump was perfectly legal @FoxNews
President
Donald Trump changed his story regarding $130,000 in hush money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign, saying Thursday he reimbursed lawyer Michael Cohen and denying the arrangement was improper.
"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 said in a Twitter
posting.
That type of arrangement is "very common among celebrities and people of wealth,” he said in a
subsequent message. “In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages” against Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. The agreement “was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair," Trump continued.
The president’s tweets confirmed statements made by his new lead attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in a Fox News interview Wednesday night that contradicted Trump’s previous denials of knowledge of the payments. Giuliani also asserted that payments were not made by Trump’s presidential campaign and therefore didn’t violate campaign finance laws.
“Funneled it through the law firm, and then the president repaid it,’’ Giuliani said during an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. On Thursday, Giuliani made the rounds of other Fox programs, telling “Fox & Friends” hosts that Trump “didn’t know the details of this until we did."
“Imagine if that came out on Oct 15, 2016 in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Giuliani said. “Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”
Stormy Daniels
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, is in the midst of a legal firestorm over the payment to Daniels, which was made in exchange for Daniels’ silence about an alleged affair with Trump. Giuliani provided the most definitive link yet between the president and Daniels, a $130,000 payment that the White House -- and Cohen -- have tried to distance from Trump.
Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, said Thursday on MSNBC that if the payment to his client was structured as a retainer for work that didn’t occur, it may still violate laws. He said Trump’s tweets appeared to have been written by a lawyer who is a "moron."
"Our case just got exponentially better in the last 24 hours," Avenatti said. “These folks make the Watergate burglars seem competent."
Giuliani’s comments about the payment -- which he brought up unprompted -- capped a tumultuous day for Trump’s legal team. Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling the investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia,
is being replaced by Emmet Flood, a veteran Washington attorney who was part of the team representing former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings.
Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney, later told the New York Times that Cohen had made the payment to Daniels "on his own autho