The husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway took a veiled shot at President Trump following revelations the president repaid his longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 given to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
George Conway, a lawyer who removed his name from consideration for a top Justice Department post, tweeted Thursday a link to the Federal Election Commission’s web page for handling personal loans from a candidate for federal office.
Conway included in his tweet a screenshot from the page, which explained what is not considered the candidate’s personal funds.
https://t.co/bsZKAUJpu3 pic.twitter.com/xJgZXrvSuT
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) May 3, 2018
“If any person, including a relative or friend of the candidate, gives or loans the candidate money ‘for the purpose of influencing any election for federal office,’ the funds are not considered personal funds of the candidate even if they are given to the candidate directly. Instead, the gift or loan is considered a contribution from the donor to the campaign, subject to the per-election limit and reportable by the campaign. This is true even if the candidate uses the funds for personal living expenses while campaigning,” the passage highlighted by Conway states.
Conway’s tweet comes after Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and a member of Trump’s legal team, told Fox News on Wednesday that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
Giuliani said the president “didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this with my clients.”
Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders have repeatedly denied the president was aware of Cohen’s payment to Daniels, who received the money in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump more than a decade ago.
The president responded to Giuliani’s disclosure in a series of tweets early Thursday and said the payment was not related to his presidential campaign.
“Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are very common among celebrities and people of wealth,” Trump tweeted.
“In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair, despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair,” the president continued. “Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.”
