Rudy Giuliani says President Trump reimbursed lawyer Michael Cohen for $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels
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Rudy Giuliani, who has joined President Trump's legal team, said Trump repaid his personal lawyer for a hush payment made to a porn star before the election.
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Giuliani's account contradicts the version of events from both Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
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Giuliani also said that Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because Comey wouldn't "say that [Trump] wasn't a target of the investigation."
President Donald Trump repaid his personal lawyer Michael Cohen for a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels , Rudy Giuliani , one of the lawyers representing the president in the special counsel's probe, said Wednesday night.
Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York, made the remark on Wednesday night's edition of "Hannity" on Fox News. His statements appear to directly contradict the version of events proffered by both Trump and Cohen about the payment.
"Funneled through a law firm, and the president repaid it," Giuliani told host Sean Hannity .
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The $130,000 payment to Daniels came as part of a nondisclosure pact brokered by Cohen shortly before the 2016 election in exchange for Daniels' silence about an alleged affair with Trump.
Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told CNBC: "This is exactly what we predicted would ultimately be shown. Every American, regardless of their politics, should be outraged."
Asked if Giuliani's admission is evidence of a campaign finance violation, Avenatti simply said, "Yes."
In a string of carefully worded tweets Thursday morning, Trump denied that the payment made to Daniels came from campaign contributions, saying: "Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction."
In his tweets, Trump validated Guiliani's remarks on Fox News and undermined his own and Cohen's previous assertions that Trump knew nothing about the payment to Daniels. Trump also denied the affair.
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In an interview with The New York Times after the Wednesday night interview, Giuliani reiterated his assertion that it did not amount to a campaign-finance violation – and he shared details of the payments from Trump to Cohen, saying "we have all the documentary proof for it."
Giuliani told the newspaper that, after the campaign, Trump started paying $35,000 a month out of his "personal family account." Overall, the former mayor told the Times, Trump had paid Cohen $460,000 or $470,000, which included "incidental expenses."