Trump Reveals He Did Reimburse Michael Cohen for His Payment to Stormy Daniels

Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump has formally disclosed that he reimbursed his personal attorney more than USD 100,000 last year, for expenses Michael Cohen incurred during the 2016 presidential election, according to a financial disclosure form released Wednesday.

The disclosures, released today by the U.S. government ethics body, do not specify the reason for the payments to Michael Cohen, but the connection is obvious as it is now public knowledge that he paid USD 130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election.

A footnote to disclosures submitted Tuesday to the Office of Government Ethics said Cohen had incurred "expenses" on Trump's behalf in 2016 of between USD 100,001 and USD 250,000. "Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and Mr. Trump fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen in 2017," it said.

Trump submitted the document on Tuesday, May 15 the deadline for administration employees to file their financial documents. The agency reviewed the form and made it public on Wednesday.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had a tryst with Trump in 2006 while he was married. The president denies the affair, and initially denied all knowledge of the payment, which Cohen has acknowledged was intended to stop her from going public with the allegations. Clifford is suing to be released from the non-disclosure agreement, claiming it is invalid because Trump never signed it.

The President's claim of not having any knowledge about the hush agreement began to unravel early this month, however, after Rudy Giuliani, a new member of the president's legal team, said Trump in fact reimbursed Cohen for the payments to Daniels.

However, the BBC reports that the head of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) wrote in a letter that "the payment made by Cohen is required to be reported as a liability". In his letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the OGE acting director says he is sending the president's latest financial disclosure and last year's one. The ethics chief writes to Rod Rosenstein that "you may find the disclosure relevant to any inquiry you may be pursuing".

The deputy attorney general is overseeing the Department of Justice investigation into whether Trump aides colluded with alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Michael Cohen, meanwhile, now finds himself under investigation by federal prosecutors, who seized reams of evidence in raids on his home and office last month, but have not revealed what crimes he is accused of.

He also stands accused of seeking to cash in on his proximity to the president, after it emerged he received millions of dollars from a Russian oligarch and major corporations seeking access to the administration.

The financial documents published Wednesday also offered a glimpse of the performance of two of Trump's flagship hotels: the Trump International Hotel in Washington -- which has attracted crowds of lobbyists, lawmakers and foreign governments with business before the federal government, and Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, dubbed the "Winter White House." Trump's hotel in the U.S. capital, which opened in late 2016, took in USD 40.4 million during 2017 while the Florida resort had revenues of $25.1 million last year. A prior disclosure made last year covered a 16-month period and showed $37.3 million in revenues for Mar-a-Lago. (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 17, 2018 01:18 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).