President Trump discloses payment to lawyer in financial report

US President Donald Trump repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen over $100,000 for expenses that Cohen incurred during the 2016 presidential election, according to a financial disclosure form released on Wednesday.

The document, signed by the President and released by the US Office of Government Ethics, did not described the purpose or the recipient of the payment made by Cohen, Xinhua news agency reported.

But Trump's lawyers have said that the Trump reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence over her alleged affair with Trump.

Trump has denied the affair with Daniels, who has claimed having "consensual" sex with him in July 2006, or any knowledge of the payment that Cohen made to the her days before the 2016 election.

"In 2016, expenses were incurred by one of Donald J. Trump's attorneys, Michael Cohen," read a footnote on the form.

"Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and Trump fully reimbursed Cohen in 2017," according to the document.

"The category of value would be $100,001-$250,000 and the interest rate would be zero."

In the document, Trump's representatives said that revealing the payments made to Cohen was not necessary by law, instead saying they were listing them for transparency.

But the ethics office concluded that "the information related to the payment made by Cohen is required to be reported and that the information provided meets the disclosure requirement for a reportable liability."

The ethics office is a government watchdog that provides oversight of the executive branch program designed to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest.

Trump filed the financial form on Tuesday, deadline for administration employees to submit their financial documents. The ethics office reviewed Trump's form and released it on Wednesday.

--IANS

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