Trump's lawyer: Payments could have been made to other women

World
Europe

US President Donald Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said on Sunday he would not rule out the possibility that payments were made to women other than porn star Stormy Daniels to get them to stay silent about allegations against Trump.

Giuliani told ABC’s “This Week” that he had no knowledge of whether former Trump attorney Michael Cohen had made other payments, but he said: “I would think if it was necessary, yes. He (Cohen) made payments for the president or he’s conducted business for the president.”

Giuliani called the 130,000 US dollars Cohen paid to Daniels in 2016 a “nuisance payment.” Daniels alleges that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied Daniels’ allegations.

The president also on Friday refuted his attorney's allegations, adding that "he''ll get his facts straight." "There has been a lot of misinformation. I say, You know what? Learn before you speak. It's a lot easier," Trump said.

A combination photo shows adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels speaking in New York City, and US President Donald Trump speaking in Washington, Michigan, US, on April 16, 2018 and April 28, 2018 respectively. /Reuters Photo

Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, faces a criminal investigation in part over the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, accused Trump of having an “extramarital affair slush fund” and told ABC he believed similar payments had been made to other women.

Disclosure of additional payments could complicate matters for Trump, who initially denied knowledge that money was paid to Daniels.

Giuliani said on Friday that Cohen’s payment to Daniels – one month before the November 2016 presidential election – did not violate campaign laws and would have been made even if Trump had not been running.

During a Fox News interview earlier in the week, Giuliani did link the payment to the presidential campaign and acknowledged for the first time that Trump had been aware of the payment. He told the New York Times later that Trump reimbursed Cohen a total of 460,000 or 470,000 US dollars after the campaign was over, which he said included “incidental expenses.”

Cohen is no longer Trump’s attorney, Giuliani said. “It would be a conflict right now for him to be the president’s attorney,” he told ABC.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, now US President Donald Trump's lawyer, welcomes then Republican presidential candidate Trump on stage during a campaign rally on Aug. 18, 2016 at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, NC of the US. /VCG Photo

Avenatti has said his team has been approached by multiple other women about Trump and he believed evidence would emerge of similar payments.

“The president had effectively an extramarital affair slush fund that was administered by Michael Cohen and that he would just be expected to take care of these things,” he said on ABC.

“They were a regular occurrence. I mean, that in and of itself should be very disturbing.”

Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said she was not aware of any other possible payoffs. “They didn’t cross my desk as campaign manager,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

'Fast-moving' exchange

Trump told reporters last month on Air Force One he did not know about the payment to Daniels. Conway said Trump meant to say he did not know about the payment at the time it was made.

“The ‘no’ refers to when the payment occurred,” she told CNN. “It was a fast-moving exchange. I asked the president what he meant and he said: ‘I didn’t know about it when the payment occurred.’”

Giuliani said that any payments made by Cohen would not have violated federal election law because they would have been made to protect Trump’s family or for other personal reasons unrelated to the campaign.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, now US President Donald Trump's lawyer, waits to speak at the 2018 Iran Freedom Convention in Washington, US, May 5, 2018. /Reuters Photo

But some legal experts said the timing of additional payments could undercut that argument by showing a pattern of behavior.

“If he had a practice of doing this during the campaign – and Cohen was hired to deal with it – it’s harder to argue that this had nothing to do with the election,” said Jens David Ohlin, a professor at Cornell Law School.

Ohlin said, however, that it was not clear that Trump’s retainer agreement with Cohen created a financial obligation that should have been disclosed.

“I’m not sure this qualifies as a loan repayment,” he said.

Ohlin also said an omission on a disclosure form would typically result in a civil penalty rather than a criminal prosecution for violating the law against making false statements to the government.

Source(s): Reuters