United States President Donald Trump on Thursday admitted to knowing about his attorney paying $1,30,000 to adult film star Stefanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, before the 2016 presidential elections. However, the president claimed that the payment to Clifford – who says she had an affair with Trump – had nothing to do with his election campaign.

Trump’s admission came after his legal aide Rudy Giuliani said on Wednesday that the president had personally repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen for the expense, BBC reported.

On October 27, 2016, a week before the presidential election, Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid Clifford $130,000 (around Rs 84.4 lakh) to keep her relationship with the president in 2006 secret. Clifford has offered to return the money in exchange for her freedom to speak about the relationship.

But Trump claimed on Thursday that money from his election campaign had not been used to pay her. Trump said the non-disclosure agreement his attorney signed with Clifford was meant to “stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair, despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair”.

The US president also claimed that such agreements were “very common among celebrities and people of wealth”. Trump alleged that Clifford had violated the agreement, which was in “full force and effect” and would now be used in arbitration for seeking damages against her.

The president had obtained a restraining order against Clifford in February to prevent her from publicly speaking about their alleged affair.