Rudy Giuliani made MAJOR news last night in an interview with Sean Hannity, revealing for the first time that Donald Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment regarding porn star Stormy Daniels:
Rudy Giuliani just told Fox that Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen the $130,000 for the Stormy Daniels agreement.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 3, 2018
Here’s the video and it does seem to have taken Hannity by surprise:
Here's the moment Rudy Giuliani told Sean Hannity that "they funneled the [$130,000] through a law firm, and the president repaid it.” pic.twitter.com/XWGKE77Ysq
— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) May 3, 2018
Transcript via the New York Times:
HANNITY: Why isn’t that happening? Where’s Mueller on that, sir?
GIULIANI: Having something to do with paying some Stormy Daniels woman $130,000? Which, I mean, is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. That money was not campaign money. Sorry, I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know. It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation.
HANNITY: They funneled it through a law firm.
GIULIANI: They funneled through a law firm, and the president repaid it.
HANNITY: Oh. I didn’t know that. He did.
GIULIANI: Yep.
HANNITY: There’s no campaign finance law.
GIULIANI: Zero. Just like every — Sean, Sean —
HANNITY: So this decision was made by —
GIULIANI: Everybody was nervous about this from the very beginning. I wasn’t. I knew how much money Donald Trump put into that campaign, and I said, “$130,000? He could do a couple of checks for $130,000.”
When I heard of Cohen’s retainer for $130,000, he was doing no work for the president. I said, “Well, that’s how he’s repaying it, with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes for Michael.
HANNITY: But you know the president didn’t know about this?
GIULIANI: Ah, he didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this. Like, I take care of this with my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.
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Hannity later cleared things up a little with Fox News’ John Roberts:
Rudy Giuliani told me that while @realDonaldTrump reimbursed Cohen for the $130k SD payment, POTUS didn’t know what the money was used for. Giuliani says Cohen merely told the President he had “expenses” for which POTUS reimbursed him.
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) May 3, 2018
But this contradicts with what the president had said previously:
"I don't know," POTUS said on Air Force One when asked where money came to pay Michael Cohen to pay off Stormy Daniels. Rudy Giuliani just said on TV that Trump paid it.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 3, 2018
Giuliani then told the Washington Post’s Robert Costa that the president cleared this revelation beforehand:
Giuliani tells me he just spoke w / POTUS. Tonight by phone. President "very pleased," Giuliani says. He says they discussed his revelation of the reimbursements long in advance. Does not expect to be fired. Insists his remarks on FNC were approved by Trump. Story TK.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 3, 2018
Q: The president’s not angry with you? He was aware you’d bring it up?
A: “Oh, yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. He was well-aware that at some point when I saw the opportunity, I was going to get this over with.”
Q: You spoke about this w/ him in recent days?
A: “Probably 4 or 5 days ago"— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 3, 2018
Q: So you won’t be fired for saying this?
A: “No! no! no! I’m not going to get fired (laughs). But if I do, I do. It wouldn’t be the first time it ever happened. But I don’t think so, no. (laughs)”— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 3, 2018
Q: Has the president been speaking to Cohen recently?
A: “No. No. No. I don’t think so. I talk to Cohen’s lawyers, Jay talks to Cohen’s lawyers. But we try to make – both Jay and I know Cohen very well. And we both like him. He trusts us. So, no he hasn’t been talking to him"— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 3, 2018
I pressed Giuliani on the legal dance Trump legal team has been doing re: possible interview. Q: Let’s be real. POTUS won’t sit for an interview, right? A: “We’re not pushing either way but the whole way in which the facts have played out here does argue against an interview.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 3, 2018
More from Costa’s interview, where Giuliani leaves open the possibility that Trump didn’t know he was paying for Daniels:
Costa: When did the president, though, recognize that these payments to Michael were going to Stormy Daniels?
Giuliani: Don’t know that. Probably now, when I told him.
Costa: But the president said on April 5 that he didn’t know about the payment.
Giuliani: Absolutely true.
Costa: Does that mean he didn’t know about the payment when it was made to Daniels, or that he didn’t know about it on April 5?
Giuliani: Both. I think. I never asked him that. So you probably should be careful. I don’t know the answer to that, except to say that when I talk to him, it seems to me that he was getting the full picture for the first time.
Costa: Just this spring?
Giuliani: Yeah. About two weeks ago.
Costa: How many payments did it take for the president to settle up with Cohen?
Giuliani: Do the arithmetic, right? $35,000 a month, probably starting in January or February. By the time you get to $250,000, it’s all paid off. Remember, he also paid for the taxes. Then there probably were other things of a personal nature that Michael took care of, for which the president would have always trusted him as his lawyer, as my clients do with me. And that was paid back out of the rest of the money. And Michael earned a fee out of it.
And in an interview with Maggie Haberman, Giuliani says he has proof the money came from personal funds:
Giuliani told @maggieNYT that he has proof that Trump paid Cohen out of his personal funds, that he went on Fox to show no campaign finance law was broken and that Trump knew what he was going to say https://t.co/ViAlMNXz5o
— Amy Fiscus (@amyfiscus) May 3, 2018
$35k a month totaling $460k or $470k, for Stormy and, as Trump often says, “other things.” Unclear what other jobs Giuliani referred to that Cohen was paid for. He said he doesn’t think Trump knew that the money was reimbursement for Stormy till recently. https://t.co/E4yzav7V8f
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 3, 2018
The White House isn’t commenting, however:
"We have nothing to say about it." –@hogangidley45 responds to Rudy Giuliani's statement that #Trump reimbursed Cohen for Stormy Daniels payment https://t.co/C8jTlglAFv @foxnewsnight pic.twitter.com/smSE388nlR
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 3, 2018
Even Trump allies like Laura Ingraham were dumbfounded by Giuliani’s revelation:
Laura Ingraham on Rudy Giuliani's reimbursement bombshell: "They better have an explanation for that" https://t.co/WFwMBV5LVG pic.twitter.com/E9TY8lQfGj
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 3, 2018
And libs were absolutely giddy over it:
This stunning admission by Rudy Giuliani appears to substantiate a straight up campaign finance law violation by both Michael Cohen and @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/D0JVsI12WY
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 3, 2018
As was Stormy Daniels’ attorney:
1/2. We predicted months ago that it would be proven that the American people had been lied to as to the $130k payment and what Mr. Trump knew, when he knew it and what he did in connection with it. Every American, regardless of their politics, should be outraged…
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 3, 2018
2/2. …by what we have now learned. Mr. Trump stood on AF1 and blatantly lied. This followed the lies told by others close to him, including Mr. Cohen. This should never be acceptable in our America. We will not rest until justice is served. #basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 3, 2018
Rudy Giuliani is the No. 1 trending topic this morning, so it looks like we’re in for a long day of Rudy news.
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