The Fixers Cohen, Giuliani, et al., Esqs.

So Michael Cohen, Esq.  had general authority to pay off extortionists and civil complainants or others whose assertions might embarrass or jeopardize hi client Donald Trump's interests.  For that he would be "reimbursed".  It's a strange business partnership.  But as the President said Cohen is a businessman and handles only a "tiny" part of my legal work. 

Rudy Giuliani reports that he too pays off claims against his clients our of his "law firm funds".  Hmmm...

RPC 1.8 Conflicts of Interest

(e) A lawyer shall not provide financial assistance to a client in connection with pending or contemplated litigation, except that:

(1) a lawyer may advance court costs and expenses of litigation, the repayment of which may be contingent on the outcome of the matter

Model Rules of Professional Conduct (American Bar Association)

GIULIANI: I was talking about the $130,000 payment —

HANNITY: Right.

GIULIANI: The settlement payment, which is a very regular thing for lawyers to do. The question there was, the only possible violation there would be: Was it a campaign finance violation? Which usually results in a fine, by the way, not this big stormtroopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and breaking down his office.

That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds or whatever funds — it doesn’t matter — and the president reimbursed that over the period of several months.

GIULIANI: Ah, he didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know about the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this. Like, I take care of this with my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people. 

“Some time after the campaign is over, they set up a reimbursement, $35,000 a month, out of his personal family account,” Mr. Giuliani said, adding that over all, Mr. Cohen was paid $460,000 or $470,000 from Mr. Trump through those payments, including for “incidental expenses” that he had incurred on Mr. Trump’s behalf. 

Gee that would be $330,000 or so in "incidental expenses".  Nice work if you can get it.

- GWC