The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
May 4, 2018

White House Struggles With Trump's Explanations of Hush Money Payment
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The White House is struggling to explain President Trump's shifting
accounts of his relationship with Stephanie Clifford-also known as
Stormy Daniels-the adult film star who claims she had a sexual affair
with Trump in 2006. Trump acknowledged for the first time Thursday that
he reimbursed his lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 hush
money payment Cohen made to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
Trump's admission came after another one of his lawyers, former New York
City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, made the revelation about Trump's payment
during an interview Wednesday evening on Fox News. At the White House,
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders struggled Thursday when asked by
reporters about Trump's earlier claims that he had no knowledge of the
payments.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "This was information that the
president didn't know at the time but eventually learned. … The
president has denied and continues to deny the underlying claim. And
again, I've given the best information I had at the time. And I would
refer you back to the comments that you yourself just mentioned a few
minutes ago about the timeline from Mayor Giuliani."