JUDY WOODRUFF: The White House finds itself tonight fending off new questions about the
adult film star Stormy Daniels, and who paid for her silence.
The questions erupted after a swirl of statements by a member of President Trump's own legal
team.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Prayer has always been at the center of American
life.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The president marked the National Day of Prayer this morning, amid new disclosures
about a payment to an adult film star.
QUESTION: Mr. President, why are you changing your story on Stormy Daniels?
MAN: Shame on you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: One of Mr. Trump's personal attorneys, Michael Cohen, has long said he
used his own money to pay $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, just before
the 2016 election.
Clifford says it was hush money to buy her silence about an alleged sexual affair with
Mr. Trump in 2006.
The president has denied any relationship, and, for months, he denied knowing about a
payment.
Then, last night, newly hired attorney Rudy Giuliani acknowledged President Trump repaid
Cohen.
RUDY GIULIANI (R), Former Mayor of New York: That was money that was paid by his lawyer,
the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds -- it doesn't matter -- and
the president reimbursed that over the period of several months.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Appearing on FOX News's "Hannity," Giuliani maintained the president was unaware
of details of the Stormy Daniels matter until recently.
RUDY GIULIANI: He didn't know about the specifics of it, as far as I know.
But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like
this.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Giuliani told The New York Times that Mr. Trump made a series of payments
to Cohen of $35,000 each, totaling as much as $460,000, for what he called incidental
expenses.
He rejected any notion that the payments might have violated campaign funding law.
RUDY GIULIANI: That money was not campaign money.
Sorry, I am giving you a fact now that you don't know.
It is not campaign money.
No campaign finance violation.
SEAN HANNITY, Host, "Hannity": So, they funneled it through a law firm.
RUDY GIULIANI: Funneled through a law firm, and then the president repaid it.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The president reinforced the point on Twitter this morning.
He said that: "Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign
and having nothing to do with the campaign.
These agreements are very common among celebrities and people of wealth."
Giuliani was back on FOX again early this morning, saying the initial payment to Clifford
was made to protect the Trumps from being personally hurt by false allegations.
But he later suggested the looming election was a factor.
RUDY GIULIANI: Imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the last
debate with Hillary Clinton.
QUESTION: So, to make it go away, they made this payment.
(CROSSTALK)
RUDY GIULIANI: Cohen didn't even ask.
Cohen didn't -- Cohen made it go away.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Still these latest revelations call into question the president's own words
aboard Air Force One last month.
QUESTION: Mr. President, did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?
DONALD TRUMP: No.
No.
What else?
QUESTION: Then why did Michael -- do you know where he got the money to make that payment?
DONALD TRUMP: No, I don't know.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Cohen said in a statement in February that: "Neither the Trump Organization
nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither
reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."
At the time, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders echoed that denial from the White
House briefing podium.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House Press Secretary: There was no knowledge of any payments
from the president, and he's denied all of these allegations.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, Sanders faced a new barrage of questions.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: As Mayor Giuliani stated, this wasn't something that was initially
known, but later learned, and, again, we give the best information possible at the time.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Cohen is now the target of an FBI investigation.
Agents raided his home and office last month, reportedly searching for documents on the
Clifford payment, among other things.
Clifford is now pursuing her own civil suit against President Trump for defamation.
And we will examine the implications of the Giuliani disclosures after the news summary.