Giuliani Attempts to Clean Up Explosive Statements on Trump’s Stormy Daniels Payment

Earlier, Trump indicated that his new lawyer would soon be getting his “facts straight.”

Anthony Behar/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Rudy Giuliani released a statement on Friday attempting to clarify explosive remarks he made just two days before, in which he said President Donald Trump had reimbursed $130,000 to his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to keep adult film actress Stormy Daniels from publicly speaking about an alleged affair with the president.

The new statement from Giuliani, who recently joined Trump’s legal team to help him contend with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, repeated his original claim that the payment was not a campaign finance violation. It also tried to reframe his comments to Fox & Friends on Thursday, when he said of Daniels’ allegations, “Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton.” Some people interpreted those remarks as accidental confirmation that the payment was politically motivated and therefore in possible violation of campaign finance laws, which limit the amount people can contribute to candidates and require disclosures of those donations.

“My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the President’s knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters,” it,” Giuliani, the former New York mayor and presidential candidate, said in the statement.

The statement is the latest development in an increasingly fraught legal situation concerning the president and the hush agreement with Daniels, which has since become a focus of a federal investigation targeting Cohen. It came just hours after Trump signaled to reporters Friday morning that Giuliani, the newest member of his legal team, would soon be getting his “facts straight” on the matter. (Prior to Wednesday, when Giuliani told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Trump had repaid Cohen for the $130,000 he gave Daniels to silence her, Trump had repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the payment.)

“Rudy is a great guy, but he just started a day ago,” Trump told reporters. He added, “Rudy knows it’s a witch hunt, he started yesterday, he’ll get his facts straight. He’s a great guy.”

The intention of Giuliani’s shocking admission appeared to be to exonerate Trump of a campaign finance violation. Legal experts say it did the opposite, likely exacerbating Trump’s mounting legal woes by suggesting he might have failed to make the proper disclosures or even conspired to cover up the campaign contribution.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

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

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate