- Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and recent addition to President Donald Trump's legal team, said that Trump repaid his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, $130,000 for a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
- Trump previously denied having knowledge about the payment.
- Fox News host Laura Ingraham pointed out the contradiction and said "they better have an explanation for that" during her program on Wednesday night.
- Giuliani later clarified his remarks and classified Trump's payments as "reimbursement" for "incidental expenses" for a combined total of $460,000 or $470,000 that Cohen had accrued on Trump's behalf.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham weighed in on Rudy Giuliani's unexpected admission Wednesday night that President Donald Trump reimbursed his longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels.
"They better have an explanation for that," Ingraham said, moments after Giuliani's interview with Sean Hannity aired, during which Giuliani made a number of bombshell remarks about Cohen, Trump, and the Russia investigation.
"[Trump] didn't know about the specifics of it, as far as I know," Giuliani told Hannity. "But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don't burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people."
Trump previously told reporters that he did not know about the payment to Daniels, which was made as part of a nondisclosure agreement meant to prohibit Daniels from discussing a sexual affair she said she had with Trump. Trump also noted at the time that he did not know why Cohen made the payment or where he obtained the funds.
Immediately following the interview, Ingraham discussed Giuliani's remarks with conservative columnist Byron York.
"Well, these are real questions," York said. "Rudy just gave us a completely different version of this."
"First of all, [Giuliani] said 'paying some money to be quiet is not a criminal act, that's OK, and there was no campaign finance violations,'" York continued. "So it appears to me that the real concern is that there would be a campaign finance vulnerability on this."
"They might not have thought this whole thing through," York said, chuckling.
"I love Rudy, but they better have an explanation for that," Ingraham replied. "That's a problem."
Giuliani later clarified his remarks and classified Trump's payments as "reimbursement" for "incidental expenses." Trump paid Cohen a combined total of $460,000 or $470,000 that Cohen had accrued on his behalf, according to Giuliani.
"Some time after the campaign is over, they set up a reimbursement, $35,000 a month, out of his personal family account," he said, according to The New York Times.
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source http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-paid-michael-cohen-laura-ingraham-stormy-daniels-2018-5
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