US President Donald Trump confirmed today that he reimbursed his personal lawyer the USD 130,000 he had given to adult film star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election to buy her silence over an alleged affair with the then presidential candidate. Trump’s confirmation came hours after his new legal aide and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani revealed that the president had personally repaid Michael Cohen the USD 130,000 that was used to buy Daniels’s silence through a non-disclosure agreement.
In an early morning tweet, Trump, 71, said his personal attorney, Cohen, was paid via a monthly retainer and that the hush agreement into which Cohen entered with Daniels had “nothing to do with the campaign.” The President had previously denied knowledge of the payment, which has prompted complaints to the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission over potential violations of campaign finance law. “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 wrote on Twitter.