Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Friday issued a correction to his previous claim that the president repaid his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, $130,000 given to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
In a statement to ABC News, Giuliani said “the payment was made to resolve a personal and false allegation in order to protect the president’s family. It would have been done in any event, whether he was the candidate or not.”
Previously, Giuliani had told Fox News: “Imagine if [the Daniels affair] came out on October 15, 2016 in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton.”
Giuliani went on to say he was not describing Trump’s knowledge of the Daniels matter, but his own, personal understanding.
Giuliani ended his statement with a dig at James Comey, arguing, “recent revelations about Comey further confirm the wisdom of the president’s decision” to fire the former FBI director.
Read Giuliani’s full statement below: