Trump Reimbursed Lawyer for Hush Money Paid to Porn Actress, Giuliani Says

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump reimbursed Michael D. Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer, for the $130,000 payment that Cohen has said he made to keep a pornographic film actress from going public just before the 2016 election with her story about an affair with Trump, according to Rudy Giuliani, one of the president’s lawyers.

That statement, which Giuliani made Wednesday night on Fox News, appeared to contradict the president, who has at times said that he was not aware of the payment to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, and did not know how his lawyer had gotten the money to pay her. It also contradicts what Cohen has been saying for months — that he used his own money to pay Clifford to keep quiet.

Cohen is under investigation by the FBI, which raided his home and office last month and seized documents that included information about the payments to Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.

“They funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it,” Giuliani told Sean Hannity, the Fox News host. After Hannity asked for clarification, Giuliani insisted: “That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the president reimbursed that over the period of several months.”

The source of the $130,000 payment is at the center of several legal disputes involving Trump, Cohen and Clifford. Among the issues is whether the payment to Clifford was in effect a contribution to Trump’s campaign aimed at preventing a negative article from surfacing just before Election Day.

Giuliani insisted on Fox News that the payment was “not campaign money, no campaign violation.”

Asked specifically whether he knew about the payment by reporters aboard Air Force One last month, Trump said “no” and referred questions to Cohen.