From left: Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the Trumpster.

In a stunning admission by one of President Trump’s new legal team members, Rudolph Giuliani admitted to Sean Hannity that Donald Trump knew about the $130,000 payment Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels, and afterward reimbursed his personal attorney for this hush money disbursement designed to quiet her discussion about an alleged affair with the president.

This unexpected disclosure by Giuliani even gave Hannity, a veteran Fox News host, pause at the implications suggested. On April 5, while traveling aboard Air Force One, President Trump stated he knew nothing about the payment to Daniels. These new revelations directly contradict the president’s story, placing him in legal jeopardy. Likewise Cohen is on record stating he made the payment of his own accord, without President Trump’s knowledge and was never paid back.

This creates a conundrum for the conspiracy-riddled Trump administration. Either the president and his personal attorney, along with Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, purposefully lied to the American people, or Giuliani is egregiously spreading untrue explanations for what Trump knew and the actions Cohen took.

The way Giuliani tells it, Cohen borrowed the cash through a home equity line of credit in order to make the payment to Daniels out of an affinity for Trump, and to spare Melania from hearing about yet another affair involving her philandering husband. I’m curious to see if the purpose of this loan on Cohen’s application actually reflects the money was intended to “pay off a porn star on behalf of another party to keep her quiet about an affair that supposedly never happened with the future President of the United States.”

That is one ballsy loan officer who approved such a request. More likely Cohen lied, which is a problem considering the “Know Your Customer” laws currently in place safeguarding against the utilization of funds for false purposes. This is why transactions above $10,000 trigger reporting to financial authorities. In fact lying on official bank reporting documents carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

The unfortunate reality appears to be the money was used on Oct. 26, 2016, mere days before votes were to be cast in the presidential election, to silence Stormy Daniels about her affair with Trump. Being the Access Hollywood tape had already caused significant reputational damage to the candidate, the explicit intention of the payment was to prevent any further public escalation of a narrative about Trump being a molester of women or serial adulterer.

Giuliani tried to make this payment sound like it was normal business. That attorneys do this sort of thing all the time for their busy clients. When in fact, no attorneys are cutting checks for $130,000 against their family homes, without the knowledge of their clients, to pay off porn stars for affairs that never happened. That doesn’t even make sense.

The following morning Giuliani continued digging a hole for himself and his new client on “Fox and Friends,” saying the $130,000 wasn’t a campaign finance violation because Trump “funneled” the money through Cohen’s law firm to a private LLC, and this magically laundered the cash.

When trying to make a case in the court of public opinion that your client did nothing wrong, I would advise Giuliani against using the word ‘funneled.’ It implies an unlawful act. Besides, regardless of how this money entered the Trump world, while running for president all funds of that nature must be disclosed for campaign finance.

Giuliani further indicated Trump sent regular payments to Cohen in what appeared to be a slush fund dedicated to paying for silence from those involved with the president in extramarital affairs and other unseemly activities.

Additionally, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels, revealed in a dossier that Cohen received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company connected to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. The dossier went on to state, “Vekselberg and his cousin Andrew Intrater routed eight payments to Cohen through a company named Columbus Nova LLC beginning in January 2017, and continuing until at least August 2017.”

Cohen’s week devolved even further after it was learned that three days after President Trump was sworn into office, AT&T inked a $600,000 deal with Cohen to gain Trump’s help with the company’s proposed merger with Time Warner. An additional pay-to-play deal was negotiated by Cohen with pharmaceutical giant Novartis for $1.2 million. It appears approximately $4.4 million was deposited into Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consultants LLC. Whether Trump received kickbacks from this money remains unclear.

So much for draining the swamp. If the Loch Ness Monster and the Creature from the Black Lagoon mated, and were exposed to extreme radiation, that might spawn a swampy beast on par with the president and his henchmen. These creeps would steal money from the purses of little old ladies while helping them across the street.

A more plausible explanation for the conflicting storylines emanating from the Trump camp is an immense smokescreen of lies is necessary to help distract from something even worse. Most likely, the mounting case against Trump and numerous members of his administration about their collusion with Russians, the conspiracy to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, and how they continue to obstruct justice in covering it up.

Trump must prepare the public for coming indictments and the possibility of his taking the fifth to avoid self-incrimination. By subverting the legitimacy of prosecutors and filling the air with enough lies to stir confusion among Americans about the truthful nature of whatever crimes may be alleged, the possibility is there for Trump to escape prosecution.

The full picture remains obscured, but Giuliani provided a key piece of the puzzle by outting Trump and Cohen as liars to the American people. This legitimately opens the door to consider what if Trump, his campaign, the family, and those complicit in the administration lied about all the allegations alleged and the worst is yet to come.

That is a reality the public needs to start getting prepared to comprehend.