Giuliani: Trump did not know reimbursements to Cohen were for Stormy Daniels payment

Rudy Giuliani said that President Trump had no knowledge until recently of what he was reimbursing his lawyer for when he repaid Michael Cohen $130,000 for the payment Cohen made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.

In an interview with NBC News, Giuliani, who joined the president’s legal team last month, insisted that Trump paid Cohen a total sum of about $420,000, which he says covered a number of fees and expenses for the attorney that Giuliani did not further explain.

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“I don’t think the president realized he paid him back for that specific thing until we made him aware of the paperwork,” the former New York City mayor told NBC.

His statements come days after Giuliani shocked many in Washington by admitting on Fox News that Trump had reimbursed his attorney for the $130,000 payment to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidenital election.

The admission came after weeks of insistence from the White House that Trump had no knowledge of the payment and Trump himself stating that he didn’t know where Cohen got the money to pay Daniels’s to stay quiet about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

“It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. They funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it,” Giuliani said Wednesday. “That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds, it doesn’t matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months.”

Despite the interview, which critics said was damaging to the president’s case, Giuliani says there’s “no daylight” between what he says and the president’s legal strategy.

“You’re not going to see daylight between the president and me,” he said. “We’re going to work hard to have a consistent strategy.”