So, Rudy Giuliani went on Sean Hannity’s show last night and exploded the story Trump spun a while back about the payoff to Stormy Daniels. Trump had earlier claimed — on camera to the traveling press pool — that he knew nothing about the payoff. We were asked to believe the entire payoff scheme was the brainchild of wannabe mafia lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Stormy off out of the goodness of his heart with no expectation of reimbursement.
Yeah, Rudy blew that tall tale right outta the water last night. Via The Post:
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a recent addition to President Trump’s legal team, said Wednesday night that Trump made a series of payments reimbursing his attorney, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 settlement with an adult-film actress — despite Trump’s assertion last month that he was unaware of the payment.
“The president repaid it,’’ Giuliani told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity.
Trump “didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this with my clients,” Giuliani said. “I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.’’
Giuliani’s fantasy about running his own porn actress payoff practice for busy clients is an especially nice touch. Jesus Christ, it’s like these liars think we all wake up every morning with a blank slate for a mind. That may be true of Trump’s base, but the rest of us have memories and internet access.
This story broke last night, and Lawrence O’Donnell had clips from the Hannity interview with Giuliani. Hannity seemed genuinely surprised when Giuliani blabbed about Trump’s knowledge of the payoff and reimbursement to Cohen, which suggests Giuliani fucked up by disclosing it.
Trump officials’ Hannity Show appearances are typically tightly orchestrated PR campaign rollouts. But then again Hannity has the intellectual capacity of a turnip, so maybe he greets each sunrise with genuine surprise? Who the hell knows? It’s helpful to keep in mind that these people are shitlords, not masterminds. More from The Post on that issue:
The disclosure by Giuliani was viewed by some White House advisers as a misstep.
“Everyone in Trump world will see this as a total unforced error and further affirmation that hiring Rudy wasn’t the best idea,” said one presidential adviser, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the internal dynamics.
However, Giuliani told The Post that he and Trump discussed the fact that he planned to disclose that Trump reimbursed Cohen.
“Oh, yeah, yeah,” he said. “Sure, sure. He was well aware that at some point when I saw the opportunity, I was going to get this over with.”
Interesting characterization, “get this over with.” Giuliani at least understood fessing up about the payoff was necessary. He also laid the groundwork for undermining the Mueller probe and prosecution of Cohen by calling the FBI agents who conducted the raid “storm troopers.” And! Giuliani put forth a new explanation of why Trump fired Comey:
“He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation. He’s entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that, and he couldn’t get that. So he fired him, and he said, ‘I’m free of this guy.’ ”
LOL! These douchetankards really do think America is the woman from “50 First Dates.” We’re supposed to forget the on-camera confession to Lester Holt and Trump blurting out his reason for firing Comey to the Russians in the Oval Office.
Though the bit about “Hillary Clinton got that, and he couldn’t get that” does sound rather like Trump, who spent 70 years floating through life screwing people literally and metaphorically without consequence and railing at the unfairness of it all. THIS, however, does NOT sound like Trump:
Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
…very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair,……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
…despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
Honest to Christ, I think the attorney who wrote that inserted the grammatical error “roll” just to make it sound Trumpian. The MAGA shitheads will lap this “celebrities” and “people of wealth” shit up with a spoon while continuing to cheer Trump on for sticking it to the “elites” on their behalf. Because they’re stupid motherfuckers. But for the rest of us, what a fucking national embarrassment this sordid bullshit is, or, as we call it these days: Thursday.