Michael Avenatti is predicting that Donald Trump will resign in disgrace over new revelations involving the president’s hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.
The attorney for Daniels said Thursday that Trump’s legal team is ‘digging a hole deeper and deeper’ and the president is ‘not going to be able to withstand’ the fallout.
As a result of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s appearances on Fox News, Avenatti said, the attorney who made the payment, Michael Cohen, will have ‘no choice’ but to rollover on the president to the feds.
He doubled down on claims that Trump would have to leave office early in interviews on CNN.
‘With each passing day she feels more and more vindicated,’ he said of Daniels. ‘She feels empowered, and she’s not going to stop this fight and either am I, until we get to the bottom of this, and all of the information comes to light.’
S
Michael Avenatti is predicting that Donald Trump will resign in disgrace over new revelations involving the president’s hush money payment to his client
Earlier that morning, Trump claimed Thursday morning that a $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn star who claims to have been his mistress was an ordinary legal expense – part of the costs covered by a monthly retainer agreement between him and his longtime lawyer.
‘Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA,’ Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
‘These agreements are very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair.’
‘Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll [sic] in this transaction,’ the president concluded.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who is now serving as a Trump legal adviser, revealed Wednesday night that Trump repaid Cohen – but didn’t address the president’s April 5 statement aboard Air Force One that he knew nothing about it.
He said Thursday on ‘Fox & Friends’ that Cohen’s payment to Clifford ‘wasn’t for the campaign. It was to save their marriage,’ referring to Donald and Melania Trump. ‘I think he was trying to help the family. And for that, the man is being treated like some kind of villain.’
But in the same interview, he suggested that a bombshell claim from Daniels would have disastrous consequences for the president’s political prospects.
‘Imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton,’ he said.
‘Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.’
President Donald Trump has laid out the details of a new rationale for the infamous hugh-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the last days of the 2016 campaign
Trump articulated a new line of defense on Thursday morning, saying his attorney Michael Cohen was repaid for his $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels through an ordinary legal retainer
Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti scoffed at the latest legal tactic from the White House: ‘They’re not thinking this through. We’ve been playing three-dimensional chess, they’ve been playing tic-tac-toe’
Rudy Giuliani said Thursday morning on ‘Fox & Friends’ that Cohen’s payment wasn’t a campaign contribution because his purpose was personal – an unsolicited favor to Donald and Melania Trump: ‘It wasn’t for the campaign. It was to save their marriage’
Trump’ss morning tweets drew mocking criticism from Avenatti, who told the ‘Morning Joe’ hosts on MSNBC that ‘they’re not thinking this through. We’ve been playing three-dimensional chess, they’ve been playing tic-tac-toe.’
‘Mr. President, you and your advisers and your lawyers need to bring it. Bring it. Because you continue to lie to the American people. We are not going to tolerate it,’ he said.
Giuliani, who has joined Trump’s legal team in recent weeks, created an overnight tempest with his initial statement during an interview with Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel.
‘Having something to do with paying some Stormy Daniels woman $130,000? Which, I mean, is going to turn out to be perfectly legal,’ Giuliani said.
‘That money was not campaign money. Sorry, I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know. It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation.
‘They funneled through the law firm and the president repaid it.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Fox News just minutes after Giuliani’s appearance Thursday that she wouldn’t expand on his explanation: ‘It’s something that we at the White House can’t comment on’
Giuliani called Avenatti and Daniels ‘stick-up artists’ who are looking for a seven-figure payday, and reacted to news that Avenatti had approached MSNBC with an idea for a legal program starring himself: ‘The TV show he could get is – well, “Ambulance Chaser”‘
Cohen has said that he took out the $130,000 from his home equity line of credit to make the payment. And Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on April 5 that ‘no,’ he had no knowledge of the financial arrangement with Daniels.
He said he did not know how Cohen obtained the money for the payment, ignoring a question at the time about whether he ever set up a fund that his attorney could draw on.
The president’s lawyer faces a criminal probe into his business affairs by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, including the $130,000 payment, which he has called legal.
Daniels has since sued Trump and Cohen claiming that the non-disclosure agreement she signed was invalid.
Appearing Thursday morning on ‘Fox & Friends,’ Giuliani called Avenatti and Daniels ‘stick-up artists’ who are looking for a seven-figure payday.
He reacted to news that Avenatti had approached MSNBC with an idea for a legal program starring himself: ‘The TV show he could get is – well, “Ambulance Chaser”.’
And Giuliani reiterated that Trump ‘didn’t know the details of this until we knew the details of it, which was a couple weeks ago. Maybe not even a couple, maybe 10 days ago.’
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders declined Thursday to expand on his explanation.
‘Mayor Giuliani is part of the president’s legal team. He’s got visibility and insight into this issue. He’s spoken about this at length, both last night and this morning. I would refer you back to his comments,’ she said on Fox News.
‘Particularly given the fact that his is ongoing legislation, it’s something that we at the White House can’t comment on.’
Rudy Giuliani (above) has said that Donald Trump re-paid Michael Cohen $130,000 after the personal attorney made the initial hush money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with the president over a decade ago
Giuliani’s facial expressions suggest he realizes he made a mistake in revealing the reimbursement
Avenatti said Wednesday night that Giuliani’s comments on the ‘Hannity’ program were a ‘stunning revelation’ and that Trump ‘evidently participated in a felony.’
He told MSNBC immediately after the Giuliani revelations that Trump may be guilty of money laundering, campaign finance violations, and fraud by paying Cohen back in small increments over the course of several months.
‘That’s a serious, serious problem,’ Avenatti said. ‘It’s a violation of federal law. It’s a criminal act to do that.’
After the interview with Hannity, The Wall Street Journal asked Giuliani if his comments on Fox put the president in legal jeopardy.
‘[Trump] paid [Cohen] back,’ Giuliani told the Journal.
‘No campaign finance violations, no crime of any kind. Michael had discretion to solve these.’
Giuliani told Hannity that the $130,000 payment was ‘a very regular thing for lawyers to do.’
The statement by Giuliani contradicts Trump’s denial last month that he had any knowledge of Cohen’s initial payment to Daniels. Daniels is seen above in downtown Pittsburgh late Wednesday being escorted to a club by a bodyguard
Trump has denied allegations that he had an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford
Giuliani told Hannity that the $130,000 payment was ‘a very regular thing for lawyers to do.’ Daniels is seen left and Cohen is seen right
The president’s attorney said, ‘Everybody was nervous about this from the very beginning. I wasn’t…
‘When I heard Cohen’s retainer of $35,000, when he was doing no work for the president, I said, ‘That’s how he’s repaying it, with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes, for Michael’.’
Giuliani also told Hannity the president ‘didn’t know about the specifics of it (the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels), as far as I know.
‘But he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this.’
Daniels claims she had intercourse with Trump one time, in 2006, and they kept in touch afterward on the promise that he would try to secure her a spot as a contestant on his reality TV show, The Apprentice.
Trump has denied the affair and previously denied having knowledge of the payment Cohen made to Daniels in exchange for her silence.
Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti (seen above on CNN on Wednesday), said Giuliani’s comments were a ‘stunning revelation’ and that Trump ‘evidently participated in a felony’
Avenatti said Wednesday evening that 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.’
He again predicted that Trump will not make it until the end of his first term as a result of the dishonesty.
‘I said it weeks ago. I’m going to say it again. Mr. Trump will not serve his term. No way, no how. He will be forced to ultimately resign,’ the attorney who is representing Daniels in her suit against Trump said on CNN.
Avanatti in a Wednesday evening tweet doubled down, saying, ‘We predicted months ago that it would be proven that the American people had been lied to as to the $130k payment and what Mr. Trump knew, when he knew it and what he did in connection with it.’
‘Every American, regardless of their politics, should be outraged by what we have now learned. Mr. Trump stood on AF1 and blatantly lied,’ he said. ‘This followed the lies told by others close to him, including Mr. Cohen. This should never be acceptable in our America. We will not rest until justice is served.’
Last month on Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t know about the $130,000 payment his personal attorney made to Daniels, issuing a firm denial in his first public comments about the adult-film actress who alleges she had an affair with him
The revelations by Giuliani on Fox News became extra difficult for the White House to defend after he told The Washington Post that he spoke with Trump late Wednesday and that the president approved of his interview.
Giuliani said that Trump was ‘very pleased’ and knew he would bring up the reimbursement.
‘Oh, yeah, yeah. Sure, sure,’ Giuliani told the Post. ‘He was well-aware that at some point when I saw the opportunity, I was going to get this over with.’
Giuliani laughed at the news out when it suggested that Trump could fired him over the debacle.
‘No! no! no! I’m not going to get fired,’ Giuliani said. ‘But if I do, I do. It wouldn’t be the first time it ever happened. But I don’t think so, no.’
In April, during a conversation with reporters on Air Force One, Trump denied knowing about the $130,000 payment that Cohen made to Daniels.
Trump directed questions about the matter to his longtime lawyer and fixer.
In his first public comments on the hush payment, he said, ‘You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney.’
Trump has only addressed the matter one other time before that in a tweet that blasted Daniels’ claim that she was threatened by an unknown man that she had drawn up in a composite sketch as a ‘total con job.’
WHY DID GIULIANI GO THERE?
Rudy Giuliani’s revelation that President Donald Trump reimbursed his personal attorney for a $130,000 payment to a porn star to keep her quiet about an alleged affair is raising new legal questions, including whether the president and his campaign violated campaign finance laws.
The former New York City mayor insisted on Fox News Channel Wednesday night that the payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels was ‘going to turn out to be perfectly legal.’
‘That money was not campaign money. Sorry, I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know. It’s not campaign money, no campaign finance violation,’ he said.
Some legal experts disagree. A look at some of the issues at play:
TIMING
Giuliani’s insistence the money had nothing to do with the campaign is complicated by the fact that Daniels’ silence was secured just days before the 2016 presidential election, and as Trump was dealing with the fallout from the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.
If the payment were wholly personal, said Richard L. Hasen, an expert in election law at the University of California, Irvine, there would be no campaign finance violations.
But Giuliani’s argument that the payment was unrelated to the campaign appears to be ‘pretty far-fetched’ given the timing, said Andrew Herman, an attorney specializing in campaign finance law at Miller & Chevalier.
Tight: Donald Trump meets with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the clubhouse of the Trump National Golf Club November 20, 2016 in Bedminster, New Jersey
‘Certainly, the argument that the government will make is that the $130,000 payment from Michael Cohen to Daniels was a loan to the Trump campaign to keep these allegations secret obviously and then Trump paying Cohen back would be a campaign expenditure’ — a loan and expenditure that should have been disclosed to the Federal Election Commission, he said.
DISCLOSURE:
All campaign expenses, including payments and loans, are supposed to be disclosed to the FEC.
Hasen said the question before Wednesday had been whether Cohen had made an unreported contribution to the Trump campaign exceeding legal limits.
‘If this is true, then it looks like Cohen may have made an unreported loan to the campaign rather than a contribution,’ he said. That could be good news for Cohen, because it would have been up to the president or his campaign to report the loan, not up to Cohen.
‘The greatest significance is that it implicates the president, directly,’ he said. ‘If it’s done with Trump’s knowledge … then now we’re talking about something that is related to the campaign and is more serious.’
Norm Eisen, who served as an ethics lawyer in the Obama White House and now chairs the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, which has repeatedly challenged Trump, also said Trump should have disclosed the loan on his federal financial disclosure.
‘There’s probably a sufficient basis for DOJ to open another investigation about whether the president was candid on his personal financial disclosure,’ he said.
WHY GO THERE?
It wasn’t immediately clear what Giuliani sought to gain with the admission.
Eisen suggested it might have something to do with the fact that Cohen is under criminal investigation in New York. FBI agents also raided his home and office several weeks ago seeking records about the nondisclosure agreement.
‘I think the other intention here apparently was to tear the Band-Aid off and to get out in public whatever Cohen might offer should he choose to cooperate,’ speculated Eisen.
Sol Wisenberg, a defense attorney who was a deputy independent counsel during the Starr special counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton, said the comment ‘obviously increases the president’s exposure to potential campaign finance violations, but it also makes him look terrible.’
‘I don’t understand the Giuliani strategy,’ he added. ‘Maybe it’s been too long since he’s been in the criminal justice field.’