CNN host Alisyn Camerota and the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman sparred this week over whether President Trump had knowingly cut checks to his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen as reimbursement for a $130,000 hush payment Cohen had made to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.<br /><br />The debate was sparked in reaction to Haberman’s latest Times piece, which reported on 11 occasions in which "Trump or his trust" had cut a check -- including one to Cohen worth $35,000 --- since taking office.<br /><br />Appearing on CNN’s “New Day” on Wednesday, Haberman suggested that Trump may have “thought he was getting a legal fee to repay Michael Cohen,” and that the checks were not necessarily reimbursement for the $130,000 that Cohen said he had paid Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.<br /><br />“That’s absurd, Maggie,” Camerota quickly interjected.<br /><br />To which Haberman fired back: “It’s not absurd, I don’t agree.”<br /><br />“$35,000 and not to know?” Camerota asked, referring to the amount of one of the checks that Haberman’s article mentioned. “This is a man who didn’t even pay his vendors when they completed work for him. This is somebody who doesn’t part with $35,000.”<br /><br />Haberman then argued that it may have been possible that Trump might have been “reimbursing Michael Cohen for other things that he may not want people to know about.”<br /><br />“I don’t think we should all presume that just because we see something that it’s giving us complete visibility in everything,” Haberman said.<br /><br />She added: “I think that (Trump) was getting a bunch of bills, and he was signing them. And whether he knew that he was reimbursing Michael Cohen for this, only two, and maybe a handful of other people at the Trump organization would know. But the two people are Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.”
