Trump defends 130K reimbursement for Stormy Daniels payment as 'very common among celebrities'
In a series of morning tweets, President Donald Trump reacted to the revelation that he had reimbursed personal attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to adult porn actress Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election, calling the arrangement "very common among celebrities and people of wealth."
The president's morning tweets are his first response to Wednesday night's bombshell announcement, made by Trump's newest legal adviser, Rudy Giuliani, on Fox News.
Giuliani told host Sean Hannity that the president reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment, appearing to contradict repeated denials from the White House and Trump's legal team that the president was even aware of the payment to Daniels.
"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 tweeted, reiterating Giuiliani's characterization of Trump's reimbursement to Cohen.
Trump goes on to deny the affair for the first time publicly, though a slew of spokespeople has made the claim on his behalf.
"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."
The president does not indicate when he learned of the payment to Daniels, though a source told ABC News that Trump's reimbursement payments to Cohen began shortly after the president took office and Cohen left the Trump Organization for private practice.
The payments were mostly for the reimbursement, the source said, but included payments for some other legal matters Cohen was working on for the president. It’s unclear what those matters were.
Trump's final tweet described the arrangement as “having nothing to do with the campaign” and threatened that the non-disclosure agreement between Cohen and Daniels “will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford.”
