Scrutiny intensifies over the payment President Trump’s lawyer made to a porn star days before the election.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s longtime lawyer said Friday he used his home-equity line of credit to arrange a $130,000 payment to a porn star who claims she had an affair with Trump.
„The funds were taken from my home-equity line and transferred internally to my LLC account in the same bank,“ Michael Cohen told ABC News, as scrutiny intensified over the October 2016 payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels.
He also sought to dismiss allegations that his use of a Trump Organization email address to arrange the payment to Daniels signaled that Trump was aware of the transaction.
„I sent emails from the Trump Org email address to my family, friends as well as Trump business emails,“ he told the network. „I basically used it for everything.“
In a statement earlier this year, Cohen said that neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization was party to the agreement to pay off Daniels or reimbursed him for the payment. His statement was silent on whether Trump personally reimbursed him.
Neither Cohen nor his lawyer Lawrence Rosen immediately responded to requests for more information.
Cohen’s explanation is the latest twist in the saga over the payment to Daniels, just days before the presidential election as the campaign grappled with a wave of sexual misconduct accusations against then-candidate Trump.
On Tuesday, Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, filed a lawsuit against Trump saying a „hush“ agreement she signed with Cohen was invalid because Trump never signed it.
Daniels has sought to tell her story publicly, and Cohen last week won a temporary restraining order against the actress through a secret arbitration process.
Daniels said she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. Trump’s team has denied the affair. On Friday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined Fto answer reporters‘ questions about Daniels.
