Rudy Giuliani says Trump paid Michael Cohen back for $130,000 given to Stormy Daniels

Contradicting President Trump, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that the president paid back his personal attorney Michael Cohen for $130,000 paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an affair she claims to have had with Trump. 

Giuliani, who recently joined Trump’s legal team, made the statement during an appearance on the Fox News show Hannity. 

Giuliani told host Sean Hannity that the payment to Daniels was “going to turn out to be perfectly legal” because “that money was not campaign money.”

The money was “funneled through a law firm and then the president repaid it,” Giuliani said. 

On April 5, Trump denied knowing about the $130,000 payment to Daniels and told reporters aboard Air Force One that he doesn’t know where the hush money came from. 

“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael,” Trump said at the time.

Giuliani told Hannity that although “everybody was nervous about this from the very beginning”  he wasn’t.

“I knew how much money Donald Trump put into that campaign,” Giuliani said, adding that $130,000 was just a “couple checks” within that vast sum.  

When he heard Cohen had a retainer of $35,000, “when he was doing no work for the president,” Giuliani said he concluded that was how Cohen was being paid for handling the Daniels matter. “With a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes.” 

“Do you know the president didn’t know about this?” Hannity asked referring past denials from Trump and Cohen. 

“He didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know,” Giuliani said, appearing to backtrack. “But he did not know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.” 

Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti said Giuliani’s statement was “a stunning revelation.” 

“Mr. Trump evidently has participated in a felony and there must be serious consequences for his conduct and his lies and deception to the American people,” Avenatti said. 

“I am absolutely speechless,” Avenatti told MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell. He said Americans should be outraged by Giuliani’s admission. “I don’t care whether you’re on the left, or on the right or in the center. I don’t care what your party affiliation is, you deserve to be told the truth by your president.” 

Avenatti said Giuliani confirmed that Trump and his team have been lying about the agreement with Daniels. 

“This is consistent with what we have been saying now for months,” Avenatti said. “It ultimately was going to proven, it ultimately was going to come out, we just didn’t know that Rudy Giuliani was going to go on the Sean Hannity and admit it on national television.” 

Daniels claims she had sex with Trump in 2006, months after his third wife gave birth to his youngest child. Trump has denied the affair. 

Contributing: The Associated Press 

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Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels speaks outside US Federal Court with her lawyer Michael Avenatti (R) in Lower Manhattan, New York on April 16, 2018.Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims to have had a consensual sexual encounter with Donald Trump a decade ago, said April 17, 2018 that she is pursuing legal action against the president because she is “done being bullied.””I’m tired of being threatened, intimidating me, and trying to say that you’ll ruin my life and take all my money and my house,” Daniels said on ABC’s “The View.””I’m done being bullied,” Daniels said of legal threats from Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, who is now embroiled in his own legal troubles.”I’m done,” Daniels said. 
EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
In this courtroom sketch, Joanna Hendon, right, one of President Donald Trump’s lawyers, speaks as the president’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, left, sits next to one of his own attorneys Todd Harrison, center, with porn star Stormy Daniels visible in the audience between Cohen and Harrison, during a federal court hearing in New York, April 16, 2018. Attorneys for Cohen and Trump tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood to delay prosecutors from examining records and electronic devices seized in the raids on the grounds that many of them are protected by attorney-client privilege. 
ELIZABETH WILLIAMS VIA AP
Michael Cohen, an attorney for Donald Trump, arrives in Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 16, 2016. Stormy Daniels, the porn star whom President Donald Trump’s personal attorney acknowledged paying $130,000 just before Election Day, believes she is now free to discuss her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, her manager xtold The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, believes that Cohen invalidated a non-disclosure agreement after two news stories: One, in which Cohen told The New York Times that he made the six-figure payment with his personal funds, and another in the Daily Beast, which reported that Cohen was shopping a book proposal that would touch on Daniels’ story, said the manager, Gina Rodriguez.  
Richard Drew, AP

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