Giuliani: Trump Paid Hush Money to Keep Stormy Daniels Quiet

giuliani

Siavosh Hosseini/NurPhoto via ZUMA

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

WTF?

President Trump reimbursed Michael D. Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer, for the $130,000 payment that Mr. Cohen has said he made to keep a pornographic film actress from going public just before the 2016 election with her story about an affair with Mr. Trump, according to Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president’s lawyers.

Giuliani said this on the Hannity show. According to the Times, it “appears to contradict” what Trump has been saying for the past several months.

Well, no, it doesn’t “appear” to contradict. It just flat out contradicts what Trump has said. It also contradicts what Michael Cohen has said. So somebody is lying here, and there’s no good reason that Giuliani would suddenly volunteer to go on Hannity’s show to lie about this. In fact, he specifically said to Hannity, “I’m giving you a fact that you don’t know.” He’s working for Trump these days, and it’s obvious that Giuliani must have advised Trump that he needs to get out ahead of this. He must be afraid that Cohen has already ratted out Trump.

There was also this fascinating tidbit from Giuliani: “That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the president reimbursed that over the period of several months.” Why would Trump have to reimburse it over several months? Is he really that broke? Did he do it just to humiliate Cohen? Did he do it in $9,999 chunks so it didn’t have to get reported? What’s the deal here?

Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

Owned by no one—except you.

We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

Not here. We’re not owned by anyone. We’re not part of any cult that demands our allegiance to a bottom line. We’ve spoken up and spoken out while other newsrooms changed their stories—or cut them altogether—to keep the C suite happy.

Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

INDEPENDENT. BECAUSE OF YOU.

Mother Jones has no billionaires calling the shots—just readers like you making fearless reporting possible

Donate