WASHINGTON — “Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?”
“No. No. What else?”
The comments on board Air Force One were the first from President Donald Trump about porn star Stormy Daniels – who claims she was paid hush money to keep from speaking about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006.
The White House has denied allegations of any affair and Thursday, the President denied knowledge of the payment – telling reporters he did not know where his attorney got the $130,000 paid to Daniels just days before the 2016 election.
“Why did Michael Cohen make it?”
“You have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen is my attorney. You’ll have to ask him.”
“Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?”
“No, I don’t know.”
In an interview with “60 Minutes” recently, Daniels claimed that she was threatened to keep silent about the relationship when she was confronted by a man she didn’t know in a parking lot.
“‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.’ And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom” and then he was gone.”
Daniels is suing to invalidate a non disclosure agreement she signed just before the election. Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, believes the President’s denial helps his client’s case, saying in a statement, “We very much look forward to testing the truthfulness of Mr. Trump’s feigned lack of knowledge. It is one thing to deceive the press and quite another to do so under oath.”
Michael Cohen’s lawyer David Schwartz has denied the payment was related to the election.