Trump and Giuliani golf together despite Stormy Daniels pay-off bungle

DONALD Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said it was possible that Michael Cohen paid off other women, as the awkward comments continued.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has joined the legal team defending Donald Trump in Special Counsel Robert Muller’s Russia investigation. Picture: Carolyn Kaster/AP

UNITED States president Donald Trump has hit the golf course with new lawyer Rudy Giuliani just day after chiding him to get “his facts right” about a six-figure payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The US President and Mr Giuliani played golf together just days after the pair couldn’t agree on the facts over the $US130,000 payment made to Ms Daniels, the New York Post reported.

The White House pool report said a tipster confirmed that the two were at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

According to the website “Trump Golf Count,” the president has spent 105 days golfing since his inauguration in January 2017.

Adult film actor Stormy Daniels claimed she had a sexual tryst with Mr Trump in 2006. Picture: Ethan Miller and Olivier Douliery/ AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile, Mr Giuliani continued his media blitz, hitting the morning news shows to talk about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

He also tried to clarify some of the confusion about whether Mr Trump knew about the $130,000 hush payment his personal lawyer Michael Cohen made to Ms Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 election.

Mr Giuliani initially said last week that Mr Trump repaid Mr Cohen but then backtracked by saying that the President didn’t know about the pay-off at the time.

The President denied knowledge of the payment last month when asked while travelling aboard air force One.

Then on Friday, Mr Trump called Mr Giuliani a “great guy” but suggested he might not be up to speed since joining the legal team two weeks ago.

“Rudy is a great guy — he’s working hard, learning the subject matter. He is a great guy,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House. “He started yesterday. He’ll get his facts straight. It’s actually very simple, there has been a lot of misinformation really.”

Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she and Mr Trump has a sexual tryst in 2006.

In an interview on ABC’s This Week, Mr Giuliani said it’s possible that Mr Cohen paid off other women during the campaign.

“I have no knowledge of that but I would think, if it was necessary, yes,” Mr Giuliani said.

“He made payments for the President, or he conducted business for the President, which means he had legal fees, moneys laid out and expenditures, which I have on my bills to my clients.”

Mr Giuliani also said the President wouldn’t have to comply to a subpoena from Mueller and suggested that Mr Trump could invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

“We don’t have to [comply with a subpoena]. He’s the President of the United States. We can assert same privilege as other presidents have,” Mr Giuliani said on ABC.

​Mr Trump, on Friday, said he would be “love to” talk to Mr Mueller’s investigators if he would be treated fairly.

Mr Trump told his lawyer to get the facts straight about a payment made to Stormy Daniels. Picture: MPI/RS/Capital Pictures/MEGA

MIXED MESSAGES

Mr Giuliani, who was hired by Mr Trump last month, said he’s still learning the facts of the Mueller case and the details of Mr Trump’s knowledge of the payment to Ms Daniels.

The payment raises questions of compliance with campaign finance and ethics laws.

On Sunday, Kellyanne Conway, a counsellor to the President, told CNN’s State of the Union that Mr Trump meant that he didn’t know about the payment at the time it was made, not at the time the question was asked.

Just last week, Mr Giuliani told BuzzFeed that Mr Cohen had complained after the election about not being paid by Mr Trump for his work in silencing Ms Daniels.

He also said Mr Cohen and Mr Trump then met to work out a $35,000 monthly retainer.

On Friday, Mr Trump said Mr Giuliani needed to “get his facts straight” but insisted they weren’t changing their story.

He has called Ms Daniels’ allegations of an affair “false and extortionist”.

— with the Associated Press

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and has been republished with permission.