Finally, the ridiculous, dishonest charade about that $130,000 payoff to porn star/stripper stormy daniels is over.
Last night, on Hannity, newly appointed Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani – sort of – admitted as much.
From Catherine Lucey and Jill Colvin’s article for the Associated Press:
President Donald Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer for $130,000 in hush money paid to a porn actress days before the 2016 presidential election, Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s attorneys, said Wednesday, appearing to contradict the president’s past claims that he didn’t know the source of the money.
During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Giuliani said the money to repay Michael Cohen had been “funneled … through the law firm and the president repaid it.”
Asked if Trump knew about the arrangement, Giuliani said: “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, like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.”
That “he didn’t know the specifics” part, I suppose, is meant to be a conduit for claiming Trump didn’t lie about this in the past. But I doubt anyone will see it that way.
This is probably going to make the Trump-haters gleeful. “See”, they will say, “he lied about that. He had sex with stormy daniels and paid her off to shut up about it. We got him!”
But I wonder if they realize what this admission actually means.
First, as noted above, Trump admitted to something that just about everyone already assumed. That drops the impact by plenty.
Second, he was elected President despite the country knowing he was married three times and having heard that infamous “pussy” tape. So why would this revelation be especially meaningful? Raise your hand if, until now, you thought Trump was a one-woman man. I doubt many hands are raised.
And third – maybe most importantly – the admission that he paid off stormy daniels now opens the door to accusations about why he did so. And that leads straight to accusations of blackmail against her.
Can anyone seriously believe the money was paid because, during the last month of the campaign, Trump had a sudden humanitarian urge to hand $130,000 to an aging porn star who, these days, is turning a buck by stripping at “gentlemen’s clubs” (I love that euphemism) with fresher, more desirable, better-built women young enough to be her daughters?
Think about it: is it credible that she approached Trump, threatening to undermine his presidential campaign, and he was forced to pay her blackmail to shut her up? Personally, I’d put the credibility level at about 99%….or maybe a little higher.
I’m no lawyer. I don’t know the legal ramifications of Trump making such a payoff. If they exist, and are significant, you can forget what you just read, because it would be in Trump’s interest not to pursue this.
But if they don’t exist, my bet would be that Trump’s legal team will tell daniels, and her obnoxious publicity-hound lawyer, to drop this like a hot potato…because, if they make it clear that Trump has to deal with her, it is going to be on these terms, not hers.
Stay tuned. This will, to say the least, be interesting.
