The Office of Government Ethics said Wednesday that President Trump should have disclosed a payment made in 2017 to his personal attorney on his financial disclosure form that same year.
The acting director of OGE flagged the discrepancy to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in case it is “relevant to any inquiry you may be pursuing.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to stay quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump a decade prior. A 92-page financial disclosure report filed by Trump this week and released Wednesday by OGE shows the president reimbursed Cohen more than $100,000 in 2017.
“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,” acting OGE head David Apol wrote in his letter to Rosenstein. “[Y]ou 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.”
The OGE document did not offer any details of the payment to Cohen by Trump.
A footnote on page 45 of the OGE disclosure indicated that Cohen had requested the reimbursement and was fully repaid by Trump in 2017.
“In the interest of transparency, while not required to be disclosed as ‘reportable liabilities’ in 2016 expenses were incurred by one of Donald J. Trump’s attorneys, Michael Cohen. Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and Mr.Trump fully reimbursed Mr.Cohen in 2017,” the footnote said.
Trump has denied knowing the details about the payment to Cohen, despite a claim earlier this month by his attorney Rudy Giuliani that he was aware the money went to Daniels and repaid Cohen in a series of $35,000 monthly installments.
“This is tantamount to a criminal referral,” tweeted Walter Shaub, the former director of the OGE. “OGE has effectively reported the president to DOJ for potentially committing a crime.”
