Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, was paid off by Trump to not rat out their sexual encounter. Trump denies allegations from Robert Mueller accusing him of this relationship and had his lawyer Michael Cohen state that he had paid her the money. Trump said he didn’t know about the payment. However, a new recruit to Trump’s legal team let slip a few bits of information that may prove otherwise.
This new recruit is Rudolph Giuliani, who is the former mayor of New York City. He stated that while Cohen had been the one who paid Clifford back, Trump had known about the payment, and had in fact, reimbursed Cohen’s money. However Giuliani made sure to stress multiple times that the exchange had been legal because it wasn’t campaign money.

YCHS Law and Politics teacher Matt Opitz had something to say about Cohen’s involvement in this scandal. He stated that, “Cohen isn’t going to get in trouble for the Russia scandal anymore. At this point he’s going to be caught on all the other things he has done, such as the Stormy Daniels or Karen McDougal cases.” Opitz believes that even though Giuliani said things he shouldn’t have, he still shouldn’t be fired. If he was fired that would only lead to repercussions for Trump.

Sophomore Claudia McAbee stated that, “Giuliani shouldn’t be fired for what he said, because even though he said that Trump knew about the payment, everybody would have found out otherwise, and the discovery would have been much rougher for Trump.” She believes that if anyone would be fired it should be Cohen for not being more discreet with the documents.

In an article from the New York Times the writer, Maggie Haberman, quotes Giuliani. Giuliani stated, “Some time after the campaign is over, they set up a reimbursement, $35,000 a month, out of his personal family account.” This was to prove that the payment was legal. Because Cohen acted “out of his own authority” when he paid Clifford and since he paid her with his own money it makes it legal. Also because Trump didn’t use his campaign money and instead used his family’s account.