Rudolph W. Giuliani said on Wednesday that President Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, for a payment that Mr. Cohen has said he made to Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic film actress widely known by her stage name, Stormy Daniels. The payment of $130,000 was to keep her from speaking publicly before the 2016 election about an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Giuliani, a member of the president’s legal team, made the statement during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
[Read our article about the interview.]
Below is a transcript of the exchange.
_________
SEAN HANNITY: My question is, are you concerned within the process of this, we did discover that a foreign national, Christopher Steele, was paid through Fusion GPS, used Russian sources that not only weren’t verified, but were debunked — are you concerned that was paid for, to manipulate the American people in the lead-up to an election?
RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI: Isn’t that closer to the mandate than Michael Cohen?
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….
