President Trump’s personal lawyer used his Trump Organization email account to set up a money transfer to an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired…
President Trump’s personal lawyer used his Trump Organization email account to set up a money transfer to an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 in alleged hush money to porn vixen Stormy Daniels, a new report said Friday.
Attorney Michael Cohen used the same email account during other negotiations in the fall of 2016 with the blond bombshell, NBC News reported, citing sources.
And the lawyer at the time for Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — addressed messages to Cohen as “Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump,” a source told the network.
Cohen and the White House have denied that Trump had an affair with Daniels that began while his third wife, Melania, was home caring for their infant son, Barron, and that the president had any connection to the payment.
Cohen said in a statement he used his “personal funds” to make the payment — though other reports said he later griped to pals about not getting reimbursed by Team Trump.
But the email — which was given to the network by Daniels’ current lawyer, Michael Avenatti — shows that Cohen and First Republic Bank communicated about the money using the Trump Organization email address, not a personal account.
“I think this document seriously calls into question the prior representation of Mr. Cohen and the White House relating to the source of the monies paid to Ms. Clifford in an effort to silence her,” Avenatti told the network. “We smell smoke.”
The email was sent to Trump’s personal lawyer by an assistant to First Republic Bank senior managing director Gary Farro, and appears to be a reply to Cohen.
The subject line read “RE: First Republic Bank Transfer” and the message said that “the funds have been deposited into your checking account.”
A day later, Cohen wired money from First Republic to the City National Bank account of lawyer Keith Davidson, who frequently works with workers in the adult film industry and who was repping Daniels at the time.
“The $130,000 question, however, is from whose account was the money transferred on Oct. 26,2017,” Avenatti told NBC, adding that it “suggests” it could have been a Trump Organization account, since the message went through Cohen’s Trump email.
Daniels filed a lawsuit this week charging that the nondisclosure agreement she signed after pocketing the $130,000 was invalid because Trump never signed it using the alias Cohen had cooked up for him, David Dennison.
She has said she wants to dish all of the details of their adulterous fling, and her lawyer has accused Cohen of trying to intimidate her so she’ll keep her mouth shut — though most of the details are spelled out in the suit.
