Rudy Giuliani revealed that President Trump reimbursed his lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 in hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels because he wanted to “get out in front of the special counsel,” he said Thursday night.
“I wanted to get out in front of the special counsel and the southern district [of New York] because at some point they would realize this information and leak it,” Giuliani told NBC News in a phone interview.
In a late night phone interview Thursday with NBC News, Giuliani explained why he decided to reveal that the President reimbursed the money to Cohen. @PeterAlexander reports pic.twitter.com/6mKq5Q4v7G
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 4, 2018
The former Mayor of New York City who is now a member of Trump’s legal team said Wednesday that the president had reimbursed money to Cohen, but said Trump didn’t know what the money had been used for. While some say Trump lied in early April when he said he wasn’t aware of any payment to Daniels, Giuliani backed up that story by saying Trump only learned about Cohen’s payment to Daniels less than two weeks ago.
[Also read: Trump breaks his silence on Stormy Daniels saga]
And while Cohen had said he was never reimbursed, Giuliani said he thinks he said that because he was trying to protect Trump’s family.
