WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump undercut his attorney Rudy Giuliani on Friday, saying the former New York mayor will eventually get the facts right regarding a payment to an adult-film star who said she had an affair with Trump.
"And virtually everything said has been said incorrectly, and it's been said wrong, or it's been covered wrong by the press," Trump said.
Giuliani, who joined Trump's legal team last month, "just started a day ago," Trump said, speaking to reporters Friday as he left Washington to attend a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas.
"He is a great guy," Trump said. "He'll get his facts straight."
It was the first time the president addressed the inconsistent narrative about the payment made by his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to the actress, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Trump did not offer any details Friday to clarify the confusion, but said, "It's actually very simple. But there has been a lot of misinformation."
Giuliani released a statement Friday trying to clarify his statements on the matter, saying his "references to timing were not describing my understanding of the president's knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters."
Giuliani also repeated his claim that Cohen's payment to Daniels did not violate any campaign-finance rules.
Further confusing the timeline, The New York Times, citing two people familiar with the arrangement, reported late Friday that Trump knew about Cohen's payment to Daniels several months before he denied any knowledge of it to reporters aboard Air Force One in April.
The developments capped a week of evolving facts surrounding the Oval Office.
The American public learned that its president, once described by a doctor as "the healthiest individual ever elected," actually wrote that description himself, leaving his health ranking among those who held the office before him a mystery. Trump also hired an attorney he previously had denied recruiting.
And the president contradicted his April denial when, this week, he said he paid back Cohen for the $130,000 given to Clifford just days before the election.
Giuliani kicked off the confusion about the payment with an interview Wednesday on Fox News, surprising even some of Trump's other attorneys. It was in that interview that he disclosed that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for Cohen's payment to Daniels.
The next day, Giuliani insisted that Trump didn't know the specifics of Cohen's arrangement with Daniels until recently, telling Fox & Friends that the president didn't know all the details until "maybe 10 days ago." Giuliani told the Times that Trump had repaid Cohen $35,000 a month "out of his personal family account" after the campaign was over. He said Cohen received $460,000 or $470,000 in all for expenses related to Trump.
In a series of Twitter posts Thursday, the president backed up what Giuliani said Wednesday. But, on Friday, Trump added more confusion by saying that everything said "has been said incorrectly."
"You know what? Learn before you speak. It's a lot easier," the president said.
In a brief telephone interview later in the day, Giuliani said the episode has not hurt his standing with Trump.
"He says he loves me," Giuliani said, calling the issue a matter of "interpretation."
Meanwhile, a person close to the White House said Giuliani was still not consulting with White House counsel Don McGahn nor Emmet Flood, the White House attorney recently hired to handle the special counsel's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The person, who requested anonymity to speak more candidly, said it is possible that Giuliani had a strategy in mind but that it wasn't clear.
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White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who ran Trump's campaign in its closing months, said Friday that she was not aware at the time that Cohen made the $130,000 payment.
"I had never heard about that during the campaign," Conway told reporters Friday at the White House. "I was the campaign manager. A lot crossed my desk."
Daniels is seeking to be released from a nondisclosure deal she signed in the days before the 2016 election to keep her from talking about a 2006 sexual encounter she said she had with Trump. She has also filed defamation lawsuits against Cohen and Trump.
Her attorney, Michael Avenatti, tweeted Friday that "Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump are making it up as they go along." He added: "How stupid do they think all of us are?"
THE MUELLER PROBE
The president Friday also addressed the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, and said he would be happy to sit down and answer Mueller's questions. But he added that the investigation is a witch hunt being run by Democrats, and his lawyers will not let him.
"I would love to speak. I would love to. Nobody wants to speak more than me," Trump said. But the investigation "is a very unfair thing. If I thought it was fair, I would override my lawyers."
Trump also claimed that Mueller worked for former President Barack Obama for eight years. Mueller, a longtime Republican, was appointed by former President George W. Bush. He served his 10-year term as the FBI director, and Obama asked him to stay on for another two years. Obama then named James Comey to the post, and Comey served during the rest of the Obama administration. Trump fired Comey a year ago, a move that ultimately led to Mueller's appointment as special counsel.
Trump is facing mounting legal threats from the special counsel's investigation and the Cohen-Daniels situation.
Cohen is facing a criminal investigation in New York, and FBI agents raided his home and office several weeks ago seeking records about the Daniels nondisclosure agreement. Giuliani has warned Trump that he fears Cohen, the president's longtime personal attorney, will "flip," bending in the face of a potential prison sentence, and he has urged Trump to cut off communications with Cohen, according to a person close to Giuliani.
Trump has of late publicly downplayed his relationship with Cohen but did acknowledge last week that Cohen represented him in the "crazy Stormy Daniels deal."
Trump also sought Friday to dispel reports of tension between him and John Kelly, his chief of staff, telling reporters that "we have a great relationship. He's doing a great job as chief of staff. I could not be more happy. So I just want to tell you that."
A Times report this week documented the "cold truce" between the two men as Trump has soured on Kelly's efforts to impose order on the White House. The story noted that Trump has taken to venting about his chief of staff to friends, while Kelly complains that "I don't need this" after dressing-downs from the president.
An earlier report from NBC News suggested that Kelly had called the president "an idiot" in private and viewed himself as the only bulwark against what he sees as chaotic decision-making by Trump.
On Friday, Kelly accompanied the president on the Marine One helicopter ride from the White House to Joint Base Andrews, where Air Force One was waiting to take Trump to Dallas. Kelly and Trump walked together from the helicopter to a group of reporters waiting nearby.
"The New York Times has falsely reported, said things that are absolutely false. So I just want to tell you that," Trump said.
Information for this article was contributed by Eileen Sullivan, Michael D. Shear and Mark Landler of The New York Times; by Jonathan Lemire, Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press; and by John Wagner, Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/05/2018