President Trump Now Admits To Making Stormy Daniels Hush Money Payment
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - President Donald Trump now admits he paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130 thousand dollars but says he did it to keep her from spreading lies about him 2016 election.
Trump and his lawyers maintain no campaign finance laws were violated. The president denies he and Daniels had an affair.
In a series of tweets, the president described the "non-disclosure agreement" with Daniels as being "very common among celebrities." He added that it was intended to, quote, "stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair."
Those revelations were initially made by Rudy Giuliani during a pair of interviews on Fox News.
"They funneled it through a law firm and the President repaid it," he said.
It was a dramatic debut for the former New York City mayor in his new role as a member of the president's legal team. But legal experts say Giuliani's statements raise new questions about the payment made to Daniels.
"That looks like a structure of money, and when you use the word 'funnel' or 'facilitate,' that doesn't look good," said CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman.
White House officials were caught off-guard by Trump's revised version of events.
"The first awareness that I had was during the interview last night," said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
Sanders had previously said the president knew nothing about any payments to Daniels.
"We give the best information possible at the time, and we're gonna continue to do that, every single day," she said.
Sanders said questions about the payment should be directed to Trump's personal attorneys.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told CBS News that Giuliani's admission, ",,, makes our case that much stronger and I think it makes our efforts to depose the president that much stronger."
