This Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s financial forms were made public. These forms reveal that the president repaid one of his lawyers Michael Cohen for expenses that Trump became liable for during the 2016 presidential election.
There is no explanation for what the payments were exactly for but Trump’s lawyers have already admitted that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels for a non-disclosure agreement.
Trump submitted the form on Tuesday, the deadline for administration employees to file their financial documents, according to CNN. The Office of Government Ethics released the forms.
The form on page 45 states that “Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and Mr. Trump fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen in 2017. The category of value would be $100,001-$250,000 and the interest rate would be zero.”
Representatives for Trump claim in the form that it was not federally required by law for the payments to Cohen to be made public. This is a lie and far from the truth.
The Office of Government Ethics disagreed with the president’s representatives, annotating the document to clarify that “the information related to the payment made by Mr. Cohen is required to be reported and that the information provided meets the disclosure requirement for a reportable liability.”
Federal law requires White House officials, including the president, to “report liabilities owed to any creditor that exceeded $10,000 at any time during the reporting period.” It is illegal to “knowingly and willfully” omit or falsify information on disclosure forms, a crime punishable by a fine and up to one year in prison, according to NBC News.
In the past, the president has also denied any relations with Stormy Daniels. As the scandal continues, he retracts previous statements. Trump may not receive any consequences for his dishonesty but this scandal is not helping his failing image.
He’s in the eye of the storm now. What’s his next move?
