WASHINGTON _ In a series of tweets early Thursday, President Donald Trump tried to contain the legal and political fallout from his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani's revelations that Trump paid hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels, which the president had previously denied.
The president, in the tweets, portrayed his nondisclosure agreement with the actress as the sort of thing "very common among celebrities and people of wealth."
Trump's postings are unlikely to answer multiple questions he and his advisors will face during the day. On Wednesday night, Giuliani told Sean Hannity on Fox News that Trump had reimbursed attorney Michael Cohen $130,000 for paying off Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
Last month, in his first public statement on the alleged affair and payoff for Daniels, the president told reporters on Air Force One that he knew nothing of the payments. "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael's my attorney," he said then. The White House also has denied Trump had an affair with Daniels.
Giuliani, by his disclosure, apparently intended to insulate the Trump campaign from potential campaign finance law violations. Yet Trump did not report the payments on his campaign finance reports, which could open him up to legal liability. Also, Giuliani's remarks suggested that Trump lied to reporters in April.
The payments were secretly made during the campaign as part of a nondisclosure agreement to prevent Daniels from publicly alleging an affair with Trump. They came at a time when he already was under fire following release of "Access Hollywood" recordings, in which he acknowledged acts of sexual assault.
In his tweets, Trump insisted that the payments have "nothing to do with the campaign," calling the nondisclosure agreement "a private contract between two parties." Trump again denied he and Daniels had an affair and said he will pursue damages against her for "false and extortionist accusations."
He said the reimbursements to Cohen came as part of a monthly retainer to the attorney. Cohen's office, residence and hotel room were raided last month by the FBI as part of an ongoing criminal investigation in New York.
The tweets do not answer why, if there was no affair, Trump agreed to pay Daniels. Nor do they explain details of Trump's reimbursements to Cohen or address his contrary statements aboard Air Force One last month.
