Rudy Giuliani's explanation about Trump's reimbursement of hush money paid to Stormy Daniels sounds a lot like, "There were so many women lawyer Michael Cohen paid off for Donald Trump, he didn't keep track of where the money was going."
Now that FoxNews.com has gotten "clarification" from Rudy Giuliani and the White House response, it's ready to let readers know about Giuliani's apparently inadvertent bombshell that Donald Trump reimbursed attorney Michael Cohen for the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. Previously, Trump TV's homepage was mum on the subject.
But something tells me the can of worms opened by Giuliani's statement that contradicted Trump's earlier claim that he knew nothing about the Stormy Daniels hush money, and that Cohen claimed he paid out of his own funds, is still very much open.
During the Hannity interview, Giuliani said Trump "repaid" Cohen by giving him a $35,000 monthly retainer. They had a "general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this," Giuliani said. Like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along."
Giuliani suggested that Cohen made so many payoffs that he would never bother Trump over a minor $130,000 hush money payout.
The White House comments to FoxNews.com make it clear that the White House legal team does not have its act together:
While the source did not know why Trump said he had no knowledge of the payments in the Air Force One gaggle, the source confirmed that the president knowingly paid Cohen back.
The net effect of the disclosure, the source says, is that it takes any potential Federal Election Commission violation off the table as Trump paid the money from his personal funds. The argument here is that if Trump paid the money himself, there was no illegal campaign contribution.
The source said that while the matter is “embarrassing for the president, it strikes a blow to the heart of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s case.
And then there's Giuliani's clarification:
Giuliani said Cohen told the president that he had incurred the expenses on Trump’s behalf and they required repayment. The former mayor said Trump was not aware that the expenses included a $130,000 payment to Daniels.
So according to Giuliani, Cohen told Trump there were "expenses" that required $35,000 a month for at least four months and Trump neither asked nor was told what they were. And, by the way, Cohen previously claimed that he paid the $130,000 out of a home equity line of credit. If Trump was willing to shell out $35,000 a month for unspecified expenses, you'd think Cohen would have gone to him for the hush money, even if it was an unspecified "expense," rather than paying for it himself. Furthermore, Cohen said, ""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."
So did this "expense" money come from Trump's personal finances? And how much other hush money was there?
Giuliani said the payments continued into 2017, but were completed before the Daniels non-disclosure-agreement story broke.
As Vox notes, The Daniels NDA story broke January 18, 2018. Stormy Daniels' non-disclosure agreement was signed by her (not Trump, apparently) on October 28, 2016. At $35,000 a month, there could have been several Stormy Daniels.
You can probably count on Fox News not having its curiosity aroused by any of this. But plenty of others will. That will undoubtedly include Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti. Here's what he tweeted Wednesday night:
1/2. 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...
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 3, 2018
2/2. ...by what we have now learned. Mr. Trump stood on AF1 and blatantly lied. 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. #basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 3, 2018
Watch Giuliani's comments about the Stormy Daniels hush money below, from the May 2, 2018 Hannity. The discussion begins at about 11:20.
NOTE TO RUDY G.
Thank you for calling Trumpy a liar. Ahahahahah!
9/11 Ghouliani reminds me of that crazy, bug-eyed old man down the street who screams at the kids to stay off his lawn.
So we’re supposed to forget that the attorney and Trump have been repeatedly lying about the situation for months. We’re supposed to believe that Trump had no idea where his money was going when he gave it to his attorney. We’re supposed to believe that even though the payoff was delivered in the middle of an election campaign, it somehow had nothing to do with it.
Seriously, how stupid does the Right Wing think the rest of the country is?
