President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer on Tuesday confirmed that he paid $130,000 of his own money to a porn star who once said she had an affair with Trump.
The long-time Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, told the New York Times that he was not reimbursed for the payment to the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford and who goes by the stage name of Stormy Daniels.
Cohen said the payment was legal but declined to give details such as why he made it or if Trump was aware of the payment at the time.
“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, according to the Times.
“The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”
It was gathered that the payment was made one month before the November 2016 election to keep the liaison quiet.
Trump was a private citizen when the 2006 sexual encounter with Clifford allegedly took place.
He was married at the time and his wife Melania had given birth to their son less than four months earlier.
Last month the celebrity magazine In Touch published a 2011 interview with Clifford in which she expounds at length and in detail on their relationship and what she described as their “textbook generic” sex.
In that interview, Clifford said she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 and had a sexual encounter with him then.
She said she spoke with Trump on the phone or saw him in person for about a year.
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