NEW YORK _ President Donald Trump's personal lawyer confirmed for the first time that he paid $130,000 to adult actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 elections.
Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen told The New York Times that he made the payment with his own money after Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she had sex with Trump in 2006.
"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 Times.
Cohen, who previously denied reports of the payment as "completely false," arranged the payment to Clifford's lawyer through a limited liability company he set up just one month before the presidential elections, The Wall Street Journal first reported in January.
On Tuesday, Cohen acknowledged the payment and refuted a complaint filed by the government watchdog group Common Cause alleging it broke election laws.
"The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone," he said Tuesday.
Cohen did not elaborate on the details of the payment and whether Trump was made aware of it.
Clifford first recounted the affair in 2011 and told In Touch magazine that she met Trump during a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament _ just months after Melania Trump gave birth to son Barron Trump.
In that interview, Clifford described a single sexual encounter with Trump, as well as a subsequent years-long relationship with the reality TV star.
The In Touch interview was never printed until January 2018, after reports of the payment first emerged.
Despite numerous public appearances in recent weeks, Clifford has dodged questions about the alleged affair, while Cohen has denied it.
