Smoking Gun? 2018 Letter From Michael Cohen’s Lawyer on Stormy Payment States Cohen ‘Used His Own Personal funds,’ and That Trump Did Not Reimburse Him
The Daily Mail obtained a 2018 letter from Michael Cohen’s lawyer stating Cohen used his own personal money to pay Porn Star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
The letter also states that the Trump Org nor the Trump campaign reimbursed Michael Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.
This directly contradicts Cohen’s testimony – not surprising given Michael Cohen is a convicted perjurer.
Trump has been accused of paying Daniels ‘hush payments’ through his then-attorney Michael Cohen in a scheme to silence her and stop the story about their alleged affair from being published in the National Enquirer.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg elevated the Stormy ‘hush payment’ case from a misdemeanor to a felony earlier this year in a effort to ‘get Trump.’
Michael Cohen’s former legal advisor Robert Costello on Monday appeared before the Manhattan grand jury to set the record straight.
Costello blasted Michael Cohen as a “convicted perjurer” in remarks to reporters in New York.
The prosecutors “cherry picked” 6 emails out of more than 300 emails, Costello said.
Costello told reporters on Monday that Michael Cohen used money “pursuant to a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) loan” to pay Stormy.
“And why did you take the loan, Michael?” Costello said recalling a conversation he had with Cohen about the payment to Stormy Daniels.
“‘I wanted this secret. I didn’t even want my own wife to know. Much less Melania Trump,'” Costello said recalling Cohen’s remarks about using money from a HELOC to pay Stormy Daniels.
WATCH:
"Michael Cohen is far from solid evidence:" Cohen's former legal advisor Robert Costello attacked his ex-client's credibility as the "star witness" in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump. More: https://t.co/crLKBCYjsW pic.twitter.com/TYRpvSmR9W
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) March 20, 2023
A 2018 letter from Michael Cohen’s lawyer to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) obtained by the Daily Mail blows another hole in Cohen’s testimony.
“In a private transaction in 2016, before the U.S. presidential election, Mr. Cohen used his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford,’ Cohen’s lawyer Stephen Ryan, who worked form McDermott Will & Emery wrote.
“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly,” the lawyer wrote.
“Contrary to the allegations in the complaint, which are entirely speculative, neither Mr. Cohen nor Essential Consultants LLC made any in-kind contributions to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., or any other presidential campaign committee.” he said.
The Daily Mail reported:
Michael Cohen claimed he was not reimbursed by Donald Trump or his organization for hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels in a 2018 letter to federal authorities, contradicting his recent grand jury testimony,
The bombshell document, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, could throw a spanner in the works of prosecutors pursuing criminal charges against Trump over the payments.
Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and the star witness in the case over which Trump reportedly faces imminent arrest, claims that Trump got him to pay $130,000 to Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with the real estate mogul, just days before the 2016 presidential election.
The letter appears to be in direct conflict with Cohen’s sworn testimony to Congress given a year later.
Cohen said under oath that Trump ‘asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair,’ and that ‘Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign.’
But in a February 8, 2018 letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan wrote: ‘Mr. Cohen used his own personal funds’, and that ‘Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.’
The letter was written in response to an FEC probe launched after complaints of campaign finance violations, lodged by Paul Ryan and the organization Common Cause.
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