Giuliani: Trump repaid lawyer Cohen for porn-star settlement

Trump’s acknowledgement of the payment before the 2016 U.S. presidential election came hours after his new legal aide and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani revealed that the president had personally repaid his personal attorney Michael Cohen the Dollars 130,000 that was used to buy Daniels’s silence through a non-disclosure agreement.

Trump – who previously said he was not aware of the $130,000 Cohen paid to Daniels before the 2016 election in an effort to keep her quiet about an alleged affair between her and the President – denied on Thursday that any campaign money was used to reimburse Cohen and that he was paid via retainer.

“If Rudy [Giuliani] wants the public to believe that Donald Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen $130,000 and didn’t know what it was for, didn’t know that it was going to silence Stormy Daniels, that is unworthy of belief”, said Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge.

“If the goal of this was to stop [Daniels] from hurting the campaign”, Noble said, “then what you have is Cohen made a loan to the campaign”. At one point he claims that Trump “didn’t know the specifics” of the Daniels payment, perhaps giving Trump a bit of cover after the president denied knowing about it at all.

Twitter, of course, exploded with reactions to both Giuliani’s statement and Trump’s confirmation. Three months ago, Daniels sued Cohen and Trump for agreement to be declared null.

No debt to Cohen is listed on Trump’s personal financial disclosure form, which was certified on June 16, 2017.

Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s lawyer, confirmed that Mr Trump personally reimbursed Mr Cohen the money over a period of several months.

In a separate interview, on MSNBC’s “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell”, Daniel’s attorney Michael Avenatti said the revelation left him speechless.

Cohen has said he took out a personal loan to make the payment through a corporation he created. “I mean, I sort of knew that the president knew it and paid it back”. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no role in the transaction.

Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti said he was “stunned” by Giulani’s claim that Trump knew about the payment. It’s about lies told to the American people. And at Fox itself, even Laura Ingraham appeared flabbergasted, saying it was wild for Giuliani to so flagrantly contradict Trump.

“Last nights train wreck of an interview with Sean Hannity proves you and your team of dotards have the combined IQ of a used pencil shaving”, a#Twitter user wrote. “I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know”, Giuliani said to Hannity, raising the subject on his own.

“If this is true then it looks like Cohen may have made an unreported loan to the campaign rather than a contribution”, said Richard L. Hasen, an expert in election law at the University of California, Irvine. Meanwhile, 15% said they “don’t know” how they feel about her.

According to Ryan, if the FEC finds that either Cohen or Trump violated campaign finance rules, they would likely have to pay a fine that is double the amount of the payment – in this case, $260,000.