Before Donald Trump arrived at the White House, the mere suspicion that a president might have had an extramarital affair with a porn actress would have had serious consequences. The suspicions have not disappeared and the story has just written a new chapter.
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The president’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has acknowledged that he paid $ 130,000 out of his own pocket to actress Stormy Daniels, who said a few years ago that he had had a sexual encounter with the tycoon. The revelation is significant because Cohen had so far categorically denied those payments, either his or his client’s.
Here’s the matter what Cohen said on Tuesday:
“In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford [Daniels’s real name]. Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly. The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone”.
Cohen has not explained why the transaction was made or whether it responded to his client’s instructions. He only added that it was a totally “legal” payment, which does not respond to a campaign contribution or to an expense associated with it. The conservative and financial newspaper revealed then that the actress charged in October 2016, a month before the election, $ 130,000 in exchange for her silence and a confidentiality agreement that prevents her from talking about the matter again.