Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer admitted on Tuesday to paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket the month before the 2016 presidential elections.
Michael D. Cohen told the New York Times that he paid Stormy aka Stephanie Clifford what has been widely reported as ‘hush money’ while working as counsel to the Trump Organization, and for which, he says, he was not reimbursed for the payment.
‘Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,’ Cohen said in a statement to the Times.
President Trump’s alleged 2006 tryst with a porn star does not seem to be going away anytime soon, as his longtime lawyer admitted Tuesday to paying the women before the 2016 elections
Attorney Michael Cohen (left), who was Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, admitted on Tuesday to paying Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford, right with Trump) $130,000 a month before the 2016 presidential elections
‘The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.’
Cohen called the payment to the porn star a ‘private transaction.’
Meanwhile Cohen said he gave a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission after a complaint was filed by government watchdog group Common Cause.
The group suggested that the payment was a ‘in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign,’ and was paid through a limited liability company that was established by Cohen.
The complaint further queried if the payment was ultimately paid by the Trump Organization or another person.
‘The complaint alleges that I somehow violated campaign finance laws by facilitating an excess, in-kind contribution,’ Mr. Cohen said in his statement. ‘The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit, and my counsel has submitted a response to the F.E.C.’
While Clifford has never publicly denied an affair with a not-yet-president Trump in 2006, she did give an interview in 2011 with In Touch about her alleged tryst with him.
The only on the record denial that has been provided is via a signed statement released by Cohen in her name in January.
However in a TV appearance the same day, Daniels appeared to disown the statement, saying she didn’t know where it came from and the signature didn’t look like hers.
She has declined to answer any questions about what transpired between herself and Trump in all interviews since the Wall Street Journal first published their report on the ‘hush money’ that Cohen has now admitted to paying out to her.
In Touch printed their 2011 interview following the WSJ report, and Clifford passed a lie detector at the time, the outlet reported.
Clifford has been enjoying her new found fame with a ‘Making America Horny Again Tour’
Clifford hosted a Super Bowl party at Sapphire Las Vegas Gentlemen’s Club on February 4, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada
In the interview Clifford claimed she and Trump had a sexual encounter after meeting at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, a year after Trump’s marriage to his third wife, Melania, and within months of her giving birth to their son Barron.
Cohen has denied, on behalf of Trump that any affair between Clifford and Trump took place.
Clifford is one of at least two women who claimed to have had an affair with Trump.
Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model sold her story to the company that owns The National Enquirer, but it was not printed, The Journal reported in 2016.