Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani stated on Wednesday that President Donald Trump reimbursed personal lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 he paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about their alleged affair.
Giuliani, who is now part of President Trump’s legal team, told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that the payment was “perfectly legal” and was “not campaign money,” meaning the arrangement didn’t violate campaign finance law, Reuters reported.
“It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. They funneled through a law firm and the President repaid it,” Giuliani said. “He didn’t know about the specifics of it as far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this,” he added.
Later in the interview Giuliani clarified the legality of the payment.
“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, it doesn’t matter. The President reimbursed that over a period of several months,” Giuliani said.
When Hannity said that he “distinctly” remembered Cohen had made the payment on his own without discussing it with Trump, Giuliani repeated his statement that the payment was legal.
“I don’t know, I haven’t investigated that. No reason to dispute that, no reason to dispute his recollection,” Giuliani replied. “The fact is, just trust me, they’re going to come up with no violation there. The payment was perfectly legal, all documented.”
Cohen has repeatedly said that he made the payment with money out of his own pocket. Trump said to reporters earlier this year that he wasn’t aware of any payment made to Daniels.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing Trump over the nondisclosure agreement she signed in exchange for the $130,000 payment, claiming the deal is void because Trump never signed the document.
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