Just to be clear, Michael Cohen - Trump's personal lawyer - admitted that he paid Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, the sum of $130,000 and that the Trump Organisation and Donald Trump himself wasn't a part of the transaction and "neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."

So, really, the question you have to ask yourself here is why he paid her at all? Did he just do it out of the goodness of his heart? Did he do it because he was walking around with $130,000 burning a hole in his pocket that he absolutely needed to give to someone and he just happened to bump into Stormy Daniels and he just paid her?

When speaking to the New York Times about the payment, Cohen refused to answer follow-up questions that might have, y'know, answered any of these. This is the first time that anyone in Trumpland has acknowledged Stormy Daniels, as Cohen previously denied the whole thing ever happened on behalf of his client, Donald Trump.

The context for Cohen's admission came from a complaint by government watchdog group Common Cause, who believed that there was a case to be answered about how the money was paid to Daniels. In his statement, Cohen said that "(the) payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone."

For her part, Daniels publicly denied that she had an affair with Trump and then claimed that the signed statement denying the whole thing wasn't hers - so, y'know, make of that what you will.

Here's her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, with completely awkward questioning on the whole topic.

 

Via New York Times