President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen was "being a good lawyer" by paying adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to quiet her claims about a one-time affair with Trump, and the then-candidate reimbursed him for personal reasons, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now on Trump's legal team, said Thursday.
Moreover, he thinks Cohen "got off cheap," Giuliani told Fox News' "Fox and Friends," calling Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, an "ambulance chaser" who is seeking a bigger payday now that Trump is in office.
The comments come after a bombshell Giuliani dropped on Fox News' "Hannity," when he said Trump had reimbursed his attorney, Cohen, for the $130,000 made to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, to have her story about a one-time affair with Trump go away for personal reasons.
He agreed with tweets from Trump Thursday that no campaign contributions played a role in reimbursing Cohen for his $130,000 payment to Daniels, and that it was a private transaction.
"I don't think there is any contradiction of that," he said. "That's what I said last night. People were indeed surprised which is why I think this is a tweet [that is] very valuable."
Trump didn't know the details about the payments until "a couple weeks ago, maybe not a couple weeks, 10 days ago," said Giuliani, but he insisted that Cohen was "definitely reimbursed" for his payment to Daniels for the non-disclosure agreement, even though he at first denied he got his money back.
The payment also could not be considered a campaign contribution, said Giuliani, and he believes Cohen was trying to help the Trump family.
"The president had been hurt personally, not politically, personally, and the first lady, by some of the false allegations," said Giuliani. "I think he was being a good lawyer."
He also insisted that no campaign violations had occurred, as the reimbursement came from Trump personally "to save their marriage as much as their reputation."
He also said he thinks Cohen thought he was getting off cheap with a $130,000 payment.
"I represented clients who paid substantially more than that," said Giuliani. "If you are wealthy, you are a target. We had a case — a very famous person, this woman was a professional. [She] did a movie about it — a professional hit on rich guys, older ones and then shake them down for a couple million bucks."
Giuliani also ridiculed Daniels' attorney, Avenatti, calling him an "ambulance chaser" in response to news to the lawyer's comments about having his own television show.
"The TV show he could get is, well, ambulance chaser," the former mayor said.
"He is trying to make up, trying to make money," said Giuliani. "It turned out, when you think it should have been more than $130,000. Is he going to give up that money? He will take the money and jump in the next ambulance."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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