Donald Trump has admitted that $130,000 of hush money was paid to the pornographic film actor Stormy Daniels to stop her going public about an alleged affair with him, despite the president previously denying knowledge of a deal.
The revelation threatened to engulf Trump in one of the most tawdry and legally damaging scandals of his presidency, and on Thursday provoked astonished reactions from ethics experts.
Daniels’ lawyer called the revelation “stunning” and said: “This is not about sex … this is about a cover-up.”
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and now one of Trump’s lawyers, revealed on Wednesday night that Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 he paid to Daniels.
A report emerged on Thursday from NBC that Cohen’s phones had been subject to a federal wiretap and that at least one call between Cohen and the White House had been intercepted. The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, in an afternoon briefing shortly afterwards declined to comment on the report. She referred reporters to both Trump’s outside lawyers and the Department of Justice. However NBC later corrected the report saying that Cohen’s calls had been monitored via a pen register, which simply tracks calls and does not involve conversations being recorded.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 – months after his wife, Melania, gave birth – and was paid to stay silent as part of a non-disclosure agreement she is now seeking to invalidate.
Trump had told reporters on Air Force One last month that he did not know about the $130,000 payment to Daniels – made by Cohen days before the 2016 presidential election – or the source of the money.
But after Giuliani said on live television on Wednesday that Trump had indeed reimbursed Cohen for the payment, the president reversed his position in an extraordinary sequence of tweets – just hours before leading a national day of prayer at the White House.
At 6.46am on Thursday, Trump wrote on Twitter, in uncharacteristically legal-minded language, that Cohen received a monthly retainer. “Not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement,” a non-disclosure agreement with Daniels. He claimed: “These agreements are … very common among celebrities and people of wealth.”
Trump described the allegations of an affair as “false and extortionist”, adding: “Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll [sic] in this transaction.”
Sanders said of Trump’s comments on Air Force One: “He didn’t know at the time but eventually learned” about the payments that he made. She added the “president denies and continues to deny” the allegations of an affair but conceded that she only learned of the payments from Giuliani’s appearance on Fox News on Wednesday evening.
But watchdog groups and experts argued that despite his contention that no money from his campaign was used to pay off Daniels, Trump still broke campaign finance laws by failing to declare the secret payment to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). No debt to Cohen is listed on Trump’s personal financial disclosure form, which was certified on 16 June 2017.
Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics and vocal Trump critic, tweeted: “AMAZING! In trying to talk his way out of a campaign finance violation, Trump has inadvertently admitted to filing a false financial disclosure in 2017. He personally certified that his disclosure was ‘complete and correct’.”
Shaub added: “This seems like as strong a circumstantial case for a violation as one is going to see. It is absolutely stunning that we’ve reached the point where the president of the United States appears to have lied to the US Office of Government Ethics about a payoff to a porn star.”
Norm Eisen, the chair of left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), which has already filed a criminal complaint, added on Twitter: “This dope & evidently his lawyers do not – despite everything – understand how campaign finance law works. Whole point is that money came from outside the campaign & benefitted it. That is the illegal ‘roll’ under review. No one saying it was campaign money.”
Crew, which requested a Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation into the payment in March, filed a supplemental criminal and ethics complaint on Thursday. “There is now more than enough evidence for the DoJ to investigate whether President Trump intentionally omitted the Stormy Daniels liability from his personal financial disclosures,” Eisen said. “This is a very serious matter, including because there can be criminal penalties for false statements.”
There can be criminal or civil penalties for violating campaign finance laws, although it is as yet unclear what fresh angle of investigation, if any, could be prompted by the latest developments.
On Wednesday night, Giuliani told Fox News host Sean Hannity: “They funneled through a law firm, and the president repaid it. That was money that was paid by his lawyer. The president reimbursed that over the period of several months.”
Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, described Trump’s tweets as “a stunning revelation”. He wrote on Twitter: “Mr Trump stood on AF1 and blatantly lied. This followed the lies told by others close to him, including Mr Cohen.”
Avenatti told MSNBC:“This is not about sex … this is about a cover-up.”
FBI agents raided Cohen’s home and office several weeks ago seeking records about the non-disclosure agreement.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/03/trump-stormy-daniels-michael-cohen-campaign-money
