Thread: Giuliani Appears to Veer Off Script. A Furor Follows.

Giuliani Appears to Veer Off Script. A Furor Follows.

By Michael D. Shear
May 3, 2018

WASHINGTON — Rudolph W. Giuliani has been President Trump’s lawyer for only a few days, and already he is causing political explosions.

In one of his first interviews since joining Mr. Trump’s legal team, Mr. Giuliani appeared to briefly stun Sean Hannity of Fox News on Wednesday night by asserting that the president had reimbursed his personal lawyer for a $130,000 hush payment to a pornographic film actress — contradicting his client, the president.

“I want to clarify something,” Mr. Hannity said, offering a do-over to Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, failed presidential candidate and longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s. Instead of taking a mulligan, Mr. Giuliani repeated the assertion.

It was another high-profile, slightly off-kilter moment for Mr. Giuliani, who has lived a life full of them.

A veteran of the no-holds-barred world of New York tabloids that Mr. Trump also inhabited for decades, Mr. Giuliani was an early and vocal supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. He was also a forceful critic of Hillary Clinton, a longtime political rival and Mr. Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential race.

For Mr. Giuliani, the embrace of Mr. Trump’s candidacy at times appeared to be a likely entree back into the limelight of national politics after a disastrous 2008 bid for the White House. An energetic speech he delivered in 2016 at the Republican National Convention, at which Mr. Trump was nominated, prompted talk of Mr. Giuliani’s being appointed secretary of state or, perhaps, of his leading the Department of Homeland Security.

Those aspirations never materialized. Mr. Giuliani was passed over for both jobs — not once, but twice for each position.

Still, Mr. Giuliani has never wavered in his support for his fellow New Yorker. And when Mr. Trump was seeking a new lawyer — a high-wattage TV combatant who would not wilt under the pressures of the news media or legal adversaries — Mr. Giuliani seemed a natural pick.

But Mr. Giuliani has historically been something of a loose cannon who is not used to having his words carefully managed. (Just ask his campaign handlers from 2008, who were constantly frustrated by his freestyling ways.)

So it may have surprised nobody when Mr. Giuliani’s comments on Wednesday night on Fox News set off a frenzy on Twitter. Almost instantly, people were reposting video of Mr. Trump on Air Force One last month saying he knew nothing about the payments.

President Trump denied knowledge of a $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic film actress known as Stormy Daniels. It was the first time he commented publicly on the scandal.

Asked about his remarks after finishing the Fox News interview, Mr. Giuliani said that what might have seemed to some viewers — including, perhaps, Mr. Hannity — like a slip of the tongue, was actually a planned disclosure.

“That removes the campaign finance violation, and we have all the documentary proof for it,” Mr. Giuliani said, explaining that the president and his other lawyers were well aware of what Mr. Giuliani intended to say on the program. He insisted he had spoken with the president before and after the interview on Fox News. Mr. Giuliani also dismissed the social media furor. There was no cause for concern.

But it may take some time to determine if he was correct.

Late Wednesday night, Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said Mr. Giuliani’s remarks bolstered its lawsuit accusing the president and his campaign of breaking the law by failing to disclose a contribution to his campaign.

“Giuliani seemingly thought he was doing President Trump a favor — but instead made Trump’s legal problems much, much worse,” said Paul S. Ryan, the group’s vice president for policy and litigation.

Whether or not that proves true, Mr. Giuliani is likely to have an opinion about it. And a combative one, at that.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/u...-fox-news.html

I'm not sure why people in the press think Americans care about who slept with who or who had sex with who or who didn't have sex with who but wants money for it or they'll sell their story whether true or false to a nasty press whose lives are apparently so void and empty that they get some personal titillation writing and talking about it.

It's time for all Americans to turn their backs to love sick playmates and fake boob porn stars and demand our "free press" exercises its privileges we guarantee and protect for them on important matters that are important to US.

I hope our country can turn a page in our "values" so it can rise to a standard of expectations that makes illicit sex stories, true or false, something that doesn't result in compensation versus publicity.

[B]Giuliani says Trump paid $130G to Cohen for 'expenses' over several months
[/B
]By Samuel Chamberlain, Paulina Dedaj | Fox News
1 hour ago

Attorney for President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, says on 'Hannity' that Mueller owes the Trump team a report saying Russian collusion means nothing.

In a wide-ranging interview on Fox News' "Hannity" on Wednesday night, Rudy Giuliani told host Sean Hannity that President Donald Trump reimbursed his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, $130,000 that Cohen paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

"That money was not campaign money," said Giuliani, a recent addition to Trump's legal team who is also a former mayor of New York City and Republican presidential candidate. "It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation."

"They funneled the payment through [Cohen's] law firm," Hannity said.

"Funneled it through the law firm and the president repaid it," Giuliani said.
Will President Trump grant an interview to special counsel Robert Mueller? Attorney for the president Rudy Giuliani shares insight about this and more on 'Hannity.'

But Giuliani later clarified for Fox News that the money Trump paid to Cohen was for unspecified "expenses," and that the president was unaware that money would be going to Daniels.

A spokesman said the White House had no comment on the matter, citing an ongoing investigation.

'Over several months'

On "Hannity," Giuliani said Trump repaid Cohen "over several months" by putting him on a "retainer of $35,000 when he was doing no work for the president."

"I said, 'That's how he's repaying it, with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes,'" said Giuliani, who added that Trump "didn’t know about the specifics of [the payment], as far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this. Like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along."
Rudy Giuliani, attorney for President Trump, speaks out about the Clinton email investigation and the Mueller investigation on 'Hannity.'

Last month, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had no knowledge about the payment Cohen made to Daniels. When asked why Cohen sent Daniels the money, the president answered: "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen - Michael's my attorney."

Days later, federal agents raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in New York City.

After Giuliani's appearance on "Hannity," sources familiar with the matter told Fox News that Trump did in fact repay Cohen the $130,000 Cohen paid to Daniels, over several months.

While the source did not know why Trump said he had no knowledge of the payments in the Air Force One gaggle, the source confirmed that the president knowingly paid Cohen back.

The net effect of the disclosure, the source said, is that it takes any potential Federal Election Commission violation off the table as Trump paid the money from his personal funds. The argument here is that if Trump paid the money himself, there was no illegal campaign contribution.

The source said that while the matter was “embarrassing for the president, it strikes a blow to the heart of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s case.

The source did not know the exact timing of when the payments to Cohen began and ended. The source believes the repayments started after the transaction with Daniels was completed.

Later Wednesday, Giuliani clarified to Fox News that the president reimbursed Cohen for "expenses," not for a payment to Daniels.

Giuliani said Cohen told the president that he had incurred the expenses on Trump’s behalf and they required repayment. The former mayor said Trump was not aware that the expenses included a $130,000 payment to Daniels.

Trump became aware of it, Giuliani said, only after the case became public.

Giuliani said the payments continued into 2017, but were completed before the Daniels non-disclosure-agreement story broke. He said he spoke with Trump before his appearance on "Hannity" and that Trump was aware of what Giuliani was going to say on the show.

Porn star's lawyer responds

Meanwhile, Michael Avenatti, attorney for Daniels, tweeted his reaction to Giuliani's "Hannity" comments.

"We predicted months ago that it would be proven that the American people had been lied to as to the $130k payment and what Mr. Trump knew, when he knew it and what he did in connection with it," Avenatti wrote. "Every American, regardless of their politics, should be outraged...

"...by what we have now learned. Mr. Trump stood on AF1 and blatantly lied. This followed the lies told by others close to him, including Mr. Cohen. This should never be acceptable in our America. We will not rest until justice is served. #basta"

"Basta," in Spanish and Italian, means "Enough!"

Later, in an appearance on "Fox News @ Night" with Shannon Bream, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said White House officials were unaware of what topics would be discussed on the "Hannity" show, and declined to comment on the $130,000 payment, citing an ongoing investigation.

"I have to refer anything on this matter to the president's outside counsel," Gidley told Bream.

Comey a 'liar'

Also in Giuliani's "Hannity" interview, Giuliani told Hannity that Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should end Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials "in the interest of justice."

"There's been too much government misconduct," Giuliani said. "The crimes now have all been committed by the government and their agents."

The former mayor also called for former FBI Director James Comey to be prosecuted for leaking classified information, at one point calling him "a disgraceful liar."

"I have never, ever... leaked a damn thing," said Giuliani, referring to his time as a U.S. Attorney. "I would have considered resigning if I ever did that."

Comey, who was fired by Trump as FBI director in May 2017, has admitted giving memos about his conversations with President Trump to at least three people -- including members of his legal team. He has claimed that the memos were personal documents, not government property.

Giuliani said that Trump had dismissed Comey because "Comey would not, among other things, say that [Trump] wasn't a target of the [Russia] investigation. He's entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that [during the email investigation.] And he couldn't get that.

"You can't blame the president for feeling, 'I am not being treated the same way [Clinton was]," Giuliani said.

At one point, Giuliani addressed Comey directly, saying that "every FBI agent in America has his head down because of you. It would be good ... if God had kept you out of being the head of the FBI."

Fox News' John Roberts contributed to this story.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018...al-months.html