New financial documents reveal a discernable reference to President Donald Trump’s $130,000 reimbursement to Michael Cohen—which he reportedly paid to guarantee the silence of Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, the actress and model who claims to have had an affair with Trump.
The reference to the payment can be found in a footnote on the 45th page of the 92-page Personal Financial Disclosure report, released by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and published by the Washington Post. The note does not explicitly say what they payment was for, but it does appears to match up with Cohen’s alleged hush money story.
“In 2016 expenses were incurred by one of Donald J. Trump’s attorneys, Michael Cohen,” Trump reported on the financial disclosure in a footnote. “Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and Mr. Trump fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen in 2017. The category of value would be $100,001 — $250,000 and the interest rate would be zero.”
This interesting reference corroborates the tale recently told by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who now sits on Trump’s legal team, during his infamous interview with Sean Hannity. Giuliani said that it took Trump four months or more to pay the bill. Cohen “funneled it [the $130,000] through a law firm and the president repaid it,” Giuliani explained.
According to Politico, The Office of Government Ethics said on Wednesday that payment should have been noted on his financial disclosure from last year. David Apol, the OGE's acting director, sent a letter Wednesday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein regarding the matter.
"OGE has concluded that, based on the information provided as a note to part 8, the payment made by Mr. Cohen is required to be reported as a liability," Apol wrote. "You may find the disclosure relevant to any inquiry you may be pursuing regarding the President's prior report that was signed on June 14, 2017."
It is not clear if the Department of Justice is investigating the lack of disclosure, according to Politico. The Department of Justice reportedly declined to comment.
In April, Trump told reporters he did not know about the $130,000 personal payment to Cohen.
“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”
It is precisely Trump’s denial that has complicated the Trump-Stormy saga. Daniels has claimed that the nondisclosure agreement which she signed—in return for the $130,000 payment—is null and void because the president himself didn't affix his signature to the document. Trump's declaration that he didn't know about the payment would confirm her story.
"You can't have an agreement when one party claims that they knew nothing about the agreement and did not sign the agreement," Michael Avenatti, Daniels' lawyer, told Salon in April.
Avenatti tweeted today that Trump’s disclosure proves the American people were deceived by Trump and his cronies.
“This was NOT an accident and it was not isolated,” Avenatti said on Twitter.
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