Former President Obama ethics chief Norm Eisen on Wednesday said that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) revelation that President Trump reimbursed his attorney for a payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels could mean that Trump filed a false financial disclosure.
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Eisen said the revelation that the president repaid Michael Cohen may prove “that Trump broke the law by failing to disclose the loan from Cohen on his federal presidential financial disclosures.”
Eisen’s remarks come hours after Giuliani, who has joined the president’s legal team, contradicted a previous statement by the president, who had said he was not aware of the payment to keep Daniels quiet about an alleged affair.
Giuliani told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the payment was “perfectly legal” and did not break campaign finance laws.
“It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. They funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it,” Giuliani said.
He went on to say that the president was not aware of the specifics of the payment.
“He didn’t know about the specifics of it as far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this,” Giuliani said.
“That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, it doesn’t matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months,” he continued.
Trump on Thursday defended the payment in a series of tweets, noting that Cohen received a monthly retainer that was “not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign.”