Rudy Giuliani argued Monday that hush money payments, such as those at the center of the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former President Trump, are a “business expense.”
NewsNation anchor Dan Abrams asked the former Trump attorney on “Dan Abrams Live” to weigh in on the payments made to two women during the 2016 election and whether Trump falsified business records as a result. Trump was indicted over the payments last week, with his arraignment in New York set for Tuesday.
Abrams posited that “it seems” that the former president had falsified business records by writing the hush money payments off as a legal expense instead of a personal one.
Giuliani responded by questioning whether Trump actually falsified the records, asking, “Did he? Did he enter the business records?”
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who served nearly a year in prison over his role in the scheme, made the payments before later being compensated by Trump.
Giuliani said that whether such an expenditure was legal expense or not, it would still be a business expense, noting that it would just affect someone’s “reputation.”
Abrams pushed back, saying, “Well, it’s not a business expense if you’re paying off women to not tell people about your affair.”
Giuliani responded that “it sure is” — and that the Internal Revenue Service would accept it as such.
The former New York mayor argued the case against Trump will be dismissed.
“I think there are too many legal — there are too many legal hurdles to overcome, unless there’s something else in the indictment,” he told Abrams on Monday.