President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen has acknowledged using his private funds shortly before the 2016 election to pay $130,000 to a porn actress who had once claimed to have had an affair with Trump.

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“In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford,” Cohen said in a statement emailed to ABC News, referencing the actress also known as Stormy Daniels.

Cohen’s statement, first reported by the New York Times, came in direct response to a Jan. 22 complaint filed by watchdog group Common Cause with the Federal Election Commission, questioning whether the payment represented an illegal, in-kind contribution to Trump’s presidential campaign, or whether the campaign reimbursed Cohen for the expense.

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“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Cohen said he has filed a response to the Common Cause complaint, calling the allegations “factually unsupported and without legal merit.”

Vice President Mike Pence has called the affair and payment allegations “baseless.”

While Cohen’s statement Wednesday tackles the election law issues, the president’s longtime close advisor added little to the larger question – why he made the payment in the first place.

In January, the Wall Street Journal first reported on the payments to Daniels, an actress who alleged she had an affair with Trump while at a 2006 Lake Tahoe golf tournament. Shortly after those reports, In Touch Magazine published a 2011 interview with Daniels in which she had described the alleged incident.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images, FILE

The payments came shortly before the 2016 election, at a time when Daniels was reported to be in talks with several news outlets to tell her story.

Daniels has since deflected questions about the matter. During a January appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” she demurred when asked about her relationship with Trump. When Kimmel asked if she had a nondisclosure agreement, she replied, “Do I?”

And when Kimmel asked about a statement released by a representative earlier in the day saying the alleged affair “never happened,” Daniels appeared to question how the document came to be.

“That doesn’t look like my signature, does it?” Daniels said. “I do not know where it came from.”

Carolyn Kaster/AP

A statement released by Cohen Jan. 10 that appeared to be signed by Daniels called the alleged affair “absolutely false” and said her relationship with Trump was “limited to a few public appearances and nothing more.”

Cohen’s latest statement did not address whether the payment was intended to keep Daniels quiet about an affair. But he did note that the payment should not be viewed as any sort of admission.

"Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage,” Cohen said. “I will always protect Mr. Trump.”</s>WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney said Tuesday he paid $130,000 (U.S.) out of his own pocket to a porn actress who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

Michael Cohen said in a statement to The New York Times that he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign for the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Cohen wrote, “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Cohen told the Times he had delivered a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog group.</s>Michael D. Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, said Tuesday that he paid US$130,000 out of his own pocket to a pornographic-film actress who had once claimed to have had an affair with Trump.

In the most detailed explanation of the 2016 payment made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, Cohen, who worked as a counsel to the Trump Organization for more than a decade, said he was not reimbursed for the payment.

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said in a statement to The New York Times. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

He declined to answer several follow-up questions, including whether Trump had been aware that he made the payment, why he made the payment or whether he had made similar payments to other people over the years.

Cohen has previously said that Trump has denied an affair with Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.

Cohen’s statement about what he called “a private transaction” was the first time that he has acknowledged a role in the payment, which was first reported in January by The Wall Street Journal.

Cohen said that he had given a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by the government watchdog group Common Cause, which filed a complaint saying that the payment, which was made through a limited liability company that Cohen established, was an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign.

Officials with Common Cause also sought to determine whether the payment was made by the Trump Organization or another person.

“The complaint alleges that I somehow violated campaign finance laws by facilitating an excess, in-kind contribution,” Cohen said in his statement. “The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit, and my counsel has submitted a response to the FEC.”

He said he would not make any additional comments about the commission complaint “or regarding Ms. Clifford.”
• All eyes on Melania Trump, absent for a month amid reports of Donald’s alleged affair with porn star

Cohen was among Trump’s fiercest defenders during his time at the Trump Organization, often telling reporters during the 2016 presidential campaign that even false information about Trump could be damaging if printed. Clifford had told her story to the magazine In Touch in 2011, as well as the gossip website TheDirty.com. Both accounts were published last month after the report of the 2016 payment.

In fall 2016, Clifford was once again in discussion with news outlets, this time more mainstream. The payment from Cohen to Clifford reportedly came a few weeks before Election Day.

Clifford has not publicly denied an affair with Trump. A statement released by Cohen in her name in January denied an affair, but in interviews, she has refused to directly answer questions about it.</s>A private lawyer for President Donald Trump says he paid US$130,000 (£92,825) of his own money to adult film star Stormy Daniels who once claimed she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago.

WASHINGTON: A private lawyer for President Donald Trump says he paid US$130,000 (£92,825) of his own money to adult film star Stormy Daniels who once claimed she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago.

The payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was made during the 2016 presidential election campaign but the lawyer, Michael Cohen, said he was working alone and that it was not a campaign expense.

"Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly," Cohen said in a statement issued on Tuesday night.

Daniels was quoted as saying in a 2011 interview with In Touch Weekly that she had an affair with Trump after they met at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament in 2006.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.

The Wall Street Journal first reported in January that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen had paid US$130,000 to Daniels in 2016, the year Trump won the presidential election.

In his most detailed account yet of what happened, Cohen said in his statement that the payment was a "private transaction". He did not explain why he made the payment or say whether Trump was aware of it.

The White House referred questions about the payment to Cohen.

Cohen's statement was in response to a complaint filed at the Federal Election Commission by the Common Cause watchdog group.

Common Cause argued in its complaint that the payment amounts to a campaign contribution well in excess of the US$2,700 limit to the amount any individual can give, and it has asked the FEC to enforce campaign finance laws.

"The complaint alleges that I somehow violated campaign finance laws by facilitating an excess, in-kind contribution. The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit, and my counsel has submitted a response to the FEC," Cohen said.

"Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump," Cohen said, adding that he would not comment further.

Common Cause said on Wednesday that the timing and circumstances of the payment "make it appear that the hush money was paid to Daniels in an effort to influence the election." It called on the FEC to conduct a full investigation.

The FEC confirmed it received Common Cause's complaint and declined to comment on the case.

Daniels' manager, Gina Rodriguez, told Reuters that by issuing the statement, Cohen was in violation of a non-disclosure agreement with Daniels about the matter and that Daniels believes she can now talk about it publicly.

"Yes, Stormy is going to talk," she said via direct message on Twitter. She did not immediately respond to a question about when and where Daniels would be speaking publicly.</s>The latest twist in the tangled tale of what happened between President Donald Trump and an adult film star more than a decade ago has taken a new turn Tuesday, with Trump’s longtime personal lawyer claiming that he paid the porn star $130,000 out of his own pocket.

Michael Cohen, the lawyer who worked for Trump for over a decade, said in a statement obtained by Fox News that the 2016 transaction with Stomy Daniels was lawful and not a campaign contribution or campaign expenditure “by anyone.”

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” the statement read.

Trump met Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the name Stormy Daniels in films, at a golf event in 2006 — a year after Trump’s marriage to his wife, Melania. According to The Wall Street Journal’s report, Clifford began talking with ABC News in the fall of 2016 for a story involving an alleged relationship with Trump, but reached a $130,000 deal a month before the election, which prevented her from going public.

The New York Times first reported on Cohen’s payment. The paper said Cohen refused to answer follow-up questions like whether or not Trump knew about the payment.

Cohen told the paper that he had delivered a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog. The watchdog asked the FEC to investigate the source of the payment and determine whether it represented an excessive campaign contribution.

He called the allegations “without merit” and said he does not plan “to provide any further comment on the FEC matter."

Fox News' Ed Henry, Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer said Tuesday that he paid $130,000 of his own money to a porn star who allegedly had a sexual encounter with the President before his time in office.

“In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford,” Michael Cohen said in a statement. “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.”

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Just weeks before the 2016 election, Cohen reportedly created a private LLC to pay Clifford, otherwise known as Stormy Daniels, following an alleged July 2006 encounter with Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported in January.

The New York Times first reported that Cohen had said he made the payment himself.

Following initial reports last month that Cohen had made the payment, he said in a statement that Trump “vehemently denies” any encounter between the two.

 In January, the organization Common Cause filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department, alleging that the reported payment to Clifford constituted a campaign finance violation. But on Tuesday, Cohen’s statement denied that accusation and said the monetary exchange was “lawful” and “not a campaign contribution.”

“The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Cohen said.

Cohen also said he filed a reply with the FEC, but that filing will not be public until the agency has resolved the matter.

When asked why he made the payment, Cohen told CNN: “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump.”

This story has been updated.</s>Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, released a statement on Feb. 13 that revealed he personally paid Stormy Daniels the $130K that’s been surrounding the alleged affair.

This is crazy. President Donald Trump‘s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, released an official statement to The New York Times on Feb. 13 and it surprisingly revealed that he personally paid porn star Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) $130, 000 in 2016. Although Cohen said he paid her the money, which many suspected was to keep things quiet in regards to Stormy’s alleged affair with Trump, he never revealed what it was for. The attorney, who counseled the Trump Organization for more than 10 years, also said he was never paid back the money he took from his own pocket. “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” he revealed in the statement. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

Apart from the wild statement, Cohen refused to answer other questions about the transaction, including whether or not Trump even knew he made the payment or if he ever made other similar transactions with anyone else. Cohen previously made headlines when he said that Trump denied having an affair with Stormy but this is the first time he talked about taking part in the suspected payment to the blonde bombshell.

In addition to the statement in The New York Times, Cohen said he released a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission after the government watchdog group Common Cause filed a complaint that claimed the payment was an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign. The group also wanted to determine whether the Trump Organization or another person made the payment. “The complaint alleges that I somehow violated campaign finance laws by facilitating an excess, in-kind contribution,” Cohen said. “The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit, and my counsel has submitted a response to the F.E.C.”

After Cohen’s statement went public, Twitter users took to the social media site to comment on the breaking news story. Some were shocked about the news while others either made a joke of the situation or harshly criticized Cohen’s actions. “@MichaelCohen212 paid off Stormy Daniels using his “own” money because he will always lie for I mean “protect” .@realDonaldTrump. What else are these corrupt people covering up?,” one user tweeted. “We arrive at the point where Michael Cohen’s admission that he paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a porn star to keep quiet about screwing Donald Trump is supposed to make a sex scandal *go away.* It’s February 2018 in America.,” another posted.

This scandal has definitely been making waves for a while and now with Cohen’s recent admittance, it’s sure to keep things brewing for a long time!

HollywoodLifers, are you shocked that Trump’s longtime lawyer admitted to paying Stormy money to keep quiet about the alleged affair? Let us know in the comments below!</s>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s personal attorney said Tuesday he paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a porn actress who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006.

Michael Cohen said in a statement to The New York Times that he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign for the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

“The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Cohen wrote.

Cohen told the Times he had delivered a similar statement to the Federal Election Commission in response to a complaint filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog group.

Common Cause had asked the FEC to investigate the source of the $130,000 payment and determine whether it represented an excessive campaign contribution.

“The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit,” Cohen told the Times.

The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Cohen had arranged the payment to Clifford in October 2016 to keep her from publicly discussing the alleged sexual encounter during the presidential campaign.

A week later, In Touch magazine published a 2011 interview with Clifford in which she claimed she and Trump had a sexual encounter after meeting at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, a year after Trump’s marriage to his third wife, Melania.

At the end of January, Daniels said in a statement that the alleged affair never occurred.

But in a TV appearance the same day, Daniels appeared to disown the statement, saying she didn’t know where it came from and the signature didn’t look like hers.</s>A personal lawyer for President Donald Trump told NBC News on Tuesday night that he paid $130,000 to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels, who has in the past said she had an affair with Trump.

In a statement late Tuesday, the lawyer, Michael Cohen, confirmed a report in The New York Times that he made the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, a month before the 2016 presidential election.

"Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly," Cohen said.

Cohen said he told the Federal Election Commission the same thing after the nonprofit government accountability group Common Cause filed a complaint alleging that the payment was an illegal "in kind" political contribution.

"The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone," he said.

He didn't say Tuesday night why he would have made such a large payment on his own initiative without reimbursement. And he also left it unclear what the payment was even for.

While Cohen has strongly denied that Trump and Daniels had an affair in 2006, he declined to answer Tuesday night when asked whether the payment was intended to silence Daniels in the weeks before the election, as The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

Daniels has previously been quoted as describing a sexual relationship she had with Trump after she met him at a celebrity golf tournament in July 2006, most extensively in a 2011 interview with InTouch magazine.

In the interview, Daniels is quoted as saying that she and Trump had sex and that she could "definitely" describe his anatomy if her account were ever challenged.

Since the Journal story was published, Daniels has by turns denied and played coy in interviews about the alleged affair — twice on one recent day.

On Jan. 30, Daniels' publicist provided a short statement attributed to Daniels that quoted the actress as saying, "I am denying this affair because it never happened."

But later that day, she went on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and said she had no idea where the statement came from, acknowledging that the signature on the document didn't look like her handwriting. She remained silent when she was asked whether she had signed a nondisclosure agreement.

The next day, a lawyer for Daniels contradicted her in a statement to NBC News, saying he personally witnessed her signing the statement.

In October, NBC News reported that Cohen was questioned by congressional investigators digging into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, described Cohen as "fully cooperative with the investigation."</s>Stormy Daniels, the porn star whom Donald Trump’s attorney acknowledges paying $130,000 just before Election Day, believes she is now free to discuss an alleged sexual encounter with the man who is now president.

NEW YORK — Stormy Daniels, the porn star whom Donald Trump’s attorney acknowledges paying $130,000 just before Election Day, believes she is now free to discuss an alleged sexual encounter with the man who is now president, her manager told The Associated Press.

At the same time, developments in the bizarre case fueled questions about whether such a payment could violate federal campaign finance laws.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, believes that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, invalidated a non-disclosure agreement after two news stories were published Tuesday: one in which Cohen told The New York Times he made the six-figure payment with his personal funds, and another in the Daily Beast, which reported that Cohen was shopping a book proposal that would touch on Daniels’ story, said the manager, Gina Rodriguez.

“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story,” Rodriguez said Wednesday.

At issue is what, exactly, happened inside a Lake Tahoe, Nevada, hotel room in 2006 between Trump, then a reality TV star, and Clifford, who was promoting a porn production company during a celebrity golf tournament.

In the years since, Clifford has claimed that she and Trump had sex once and then carried on a subsequent yearslong platonic relationship. But she has also, through a lawyer, denied the two had an affair. Trump’s lawyer, Cohen, has denied there was ever an affair.

The actress first detailed her account of an alleged extramarital affair with Trump in 2011, when the celebrity website The Dirty published it but then removed the material under the threat of a lawsuit, according to the site’s founder, Nik Richie.

Her story then remained largely out of public view until a month before the 2016 presidential election, when the website The Smoking Gun published an account that went mostly unnoted by major news organizations.

In January, The Wall Street Journal reported that a limited liability company in Delaware formed by Cohen made the six-figure payment to the actress to keep her from discussing the affair during the presidential campaign.

Cohen said the payment was made with his own money, and that “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.”

He was responding to inquiries from the Federal Election Commission, which is investigating an advocacy group’s complaint that the October 2016 transaction violated campaign finance laws.

The case was reminiscent of the 2012 prosecution of former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, who faced six criminal charges after a pair of his wealthy friends spent nearly $1 million to support his pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, during his 2008 presidential run.

Jurors eventually acquitted Edwards on one charge of accepting illegal campaign contributions, but were unable to reach a verdict on the five remaining counts including conspiracy and making false statements. The case ended when prosecutors elected not to retry Edwards.

As in that case, the payment by Trump’s lawyer was not reported as a campaign expenditure nor an in-kind contribution, and the origin of the money is still unclear, said Paul Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, the group that filed the complaint.

But Bradley Smith, the Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission from 2000 to 2005, was skeptical that the payment by Cohen could pose a campaign finance issue.

“You’d have to prove that it was a coordinated expenditure, and that the reason it was done was for the benefit of the campaign,” he said. If the payment was made to protect Trump’s brand or avoid personal embarrassment, he said, that would likely not be a campaign problem.

At the time of the payment, which followed the release of footage from “Access Hollywood,” in which Trump was recorded bragging about grabbing women’s privates, Clifford was negotiating with multiple national news networks about telling her story.

A White House spokeswoman referred all questions about the payment to Cohen.

The alleged affair between the actress and Trump occurred in 2006, a year after his marriage to his third wife, Melania.

A lawyer for Clifford, Keith Davidson, has previously distributed statements on her behalf denying there was any affair.

But in a 2011 interview with the gossip magazine In Touch Weekly, the actress — who the magazine said passed a polygraph exam — said the two had sex on one occasion and she described subsequent in-person meetings, phone calls and discussions about a potential TV appearance. The AP has previously reported that In Touch held off on publishing her account after Cohen threatened to sue the publication. It published the interview last month.

In recent weeks the actress has played coy, declining to elaborate when pressed on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Rodriguez said her client will soon announce how and when she will tell her story publicly. The celebrity website The Blast first reported the contention that Cohen’s comments freed Clifford from her nondisclosure agreement.
Michael Cohen, the private lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, says he made a "lawful" US$130,000 payment to porn star Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, from his own private funds. The statement to The New York Times comes after the Common Cause organization on January 22, 2018, filed a complaint about the payment with the Federal Election Commission.