WASHINGTON ― The personal attorney of the president of the United States acknowledged this week that he paid an adult film star $130,000 just before the 2016 presidential election. The bombshell admission would have almost certainly rocked any previous administration, raising a whole host of questions, like, “Did this in any way violate campaign finance law?” and, “Dear God, why would the president’s lawyer ever pay a porn star?”
Republican lawmakers, however, said on Wednesday they had no interest whatsoever in the matter. They ducked and dodged questions about the payment, explaining they were not closely following a story about a president and a porn star. Some begged off inquiries by saying they were wholly engrossed by this week’s ongoing debate over immigration in the Senate.
“That’s the least thing on my mind right now,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told HuffPost.
Graham, who was one of the House prosecutors in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, added he was “not remotely curious” about why the lawyer paid a porn star $130,000 shortly before Donald Trump won the White House race.
Trump’s long-time lawyer, Michael Cohen, told The New York Times on Tuesday that he paid Stephanie Clifford, the adult film entertainer known as Stormy Daniels, out of his own pocket and that “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction.”
“The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Cohen said in a statement to the Times.
The statement did not address whether Trump himself had anything to do with the matter. Nor did he answer questions about whether Trump had been aware of the payment, why it was made or whether Cohen had made similar payments to other people in the past, according to the Times.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported the payment was made to Clifford to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006, the year after he married his third wife, Melania, and a few months after the birth of their son, Barron. Daniels was reportedly paid to sign a non-disclosure agreement and keep silent about the affair.
Cohen and White House officials have previously denied the affair occurred. In his Tuesday statement about the payment, 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.”
Clifford supposedly revealed the affair in previously unpublished 2011 interview with In Touch Weekly that the outlet wrote about after the Wall Street Journal story.
After initially denying the affair and the payment, Clifford over the past month has been silent or given coy answers about her relationship with Trump.
Source: Huffingtonpost News
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