LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WOMEN: “Rudy Giuliani may have added to the legal headaches of his new law client and old friend, President Donald Trump, when he drew a link Thursday [5-3-18] between a hush money payment to a porn actress and the potential fallout if her allegations of a tryst with Trump had gone public before the 2016 election. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and U.S. attorney, said in a series of interviews that Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a secret $130,000 payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels in October 2016. Trump himself acknowledged the reimbursement in tweets Thursday morning after previously denying he knew about the payment.Both Trump and Giuliani insisted that the reimbursement was made from Trump’s personal funds and that the initial payment had nothing to do with the campaign. But then Giuliani made the link himself, telling ‘Fox & Friends’: ‘Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton.’ Several experts in campaign finance law, who already had raised questions about the payment, said the case that the payment violated federal law had only grown stronger.”
-Mark Sherman, “Giuliani remarks on hush money may have added to Trump woes,” The Associated Press, May 3, 2018 1:30 pm