Washington: Donald Trump's personal lawyer used funds from his own home equity line to make a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the US President's behalf, he told CNN.
"The funds were taken from my home equity line and transferred internally to my LLC account in the same bank," Cohen said in an interview on Friday.
The lawyer also confirmed that he used his Trump Organization email account to communicate details of a payment transfer to Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star known as Stormy Daniels, who allegedly had an affair with the President before his time in office.
Earlier on Friday, Clifford's lawyer, Michael Avenatti, provided an email to CNN in which Cohen confirmed the transfer to Daniels' former attorney, Keith Davidson.
In the email, both Cohen's personal email account and trumporg.com email account were used.
The deposit was confirmed to Cohen by a First Republic Bank employee.
Cohen responded later on Friday, saying that he regularly used his business email account for personal matters.
"I sent emails from the Trump Org email address to my family, friends as well as Trump business emails. I basically used it for everything. I am certain most people can relate," he said.
Avenatti, speaking on MSNBC, said Cohen's use of his business email to conduct this transaction could be an indication that he was acting in an official capacity as a legal counsel to Trump when he transferred the money to Clifford.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that "arbitration was won in the President's favour" regarding the case, reports CNN.
The statement was an admission that the nondisclosure agreement exists and that it directly involves Trump.
It was the first time the White House had admitted the President was involved in any way with Clifford.
Clifford filed suit against Trump on Tuesday, alleging that he never signed a hush agreement regarding the alleged affair and therefore the agreement is void.
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