White House ‘not aware’ of additional payments to women

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she’s “not aware” of any payments that have been made on President Trump’s behalf to women, aside from the one that has been acknowledged to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.

Sanders was asked about the possibility that additional women had received payments a day after Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told ABC that it’s possible that another Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, had paid other women “if necessary.”

{mosads}“I’m not aware of any other activity, but I would refer you to Rudy Giuliani to respond to any of those questions, or anybody else on the president’s outside counsel,” Sanders said during Monday’s press briefing. 

Asked if she learned of any such payments during her time with the Trump campaign, Sanders reiterated that she’s “not aware of anything like that.”

Sanders has in recent days been left to deal with the fallout of Giuliani’s statements about Cohen’s role in doling out payments on Trump’s behalf.

Giuliani made waves last week when he revealed in a Fox News interview that the president reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 payment to Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.

Trump had previously denied he knew of the payment, and denied knowing where Cohen got the money for the payment.

Sanders said the next day that she first learned that Trump reimbursed Cohen when Giuliani revealed it on Fox News. 

“We give the very best information that we have at the time,” Sanders said when pressed about her original denial that Trump was aware of the payment.

She added that the press office does not coordinate with Trump’s legal team, but pushed back when a reporter suggested she was “blindsided” by Giuliani’s comments.

The Washington Post reported that Sanders later told colleagues that Giuliani’s comments left her in an “untenable position,” underscoring the appearance that she’s largely been left in the dark of the statements from the former New York City mayor.

All White House officials have disputed that the payment constitutes a campaign-finance law violation.