WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels (all times local):
7:58 a.m.
An attorney for President Donald Trump says the president didn’t know the full details of his personal lawyer’s arrangement with a porn actress until “maybe 10 days ago.”
Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s attorneys, appeared on Fox and Friends Thursday. He says that Michael Cohen was reimbursed for making a $130,000 hush payment to Stormy Daniels in the days before the 2016 election to silence her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump.
Giuliani says: “Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”
Giuliani described the payment as personal, not a campaign expense. He said that Trump denies the relationship, but Cohen may have seen $130,000 as “cheap.”
Added Giuliani: “imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton.”
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7:30 a.m.
Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti says if the revelations from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani are true about the $130,000 payment to Daniels — then “that’s a crime.”
Avenatti tells MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “there are serious consequences” if payments made through “law firm invoices for make-believe work or work that everyone always knew was never going to be performed” were submitted for reimbursement by the president for the $130,000 hush money to Daniels.
Avenatti says, “There may be money laundering. There may be bank fraud. There may be campaign finance violations.”
He added, “Our case just got exponentially better in the last 24 hours.”
Giuliani said Wednesday night that President Donald Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the payment made to Daniels.
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7:14 a.m.
President Donald Trump says reimbursement to his lawyer for hush money paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels was done through a monthly retainer and “had nothing to do with the campaign.”
Trump says on Twitter Thursday that his personal attorney Michael Cohen received a monthly retainer “from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA.”
The president added that “The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair.”
Trump previously said he knew nothing about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump’s new attorney Rudy Giuilani said Wednesday on Fox News that Trump had reimbursed Cohen.
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2:14 a.m.
One of President Donald Trump’s newest lawyers says the president reimbursed his own personal lawyer for $130,000 in hush money paid to a porn actress days before the 2016 presidential election.
The comments by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani during an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” appear to contradict Trump’s statements several weeks ago, when he said he didn’t know about the payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Outside experts say the revelation raises a number of questions, including whether the money represented repayment of an undisclosed loan or could be seen as reimbursement for a campaign expenditure.
In reaction to Giuliani’s remarks, Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said Trump evidently participated in a felony and that there must be serious consequences for his conduct.
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