The moment Trump denied knowing about payment to Stormy Daniels

In a way, it all started with a simple question.

With former President Donald Trump being arraigned on Tuesday in New York City on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to Stormy Daniels -- to which he pleaded not guilty -- comes the reminder of when Trump first broke his silence about Daniels, an adult film star.

It was on April 5, 2018, when Trump walked back to where reporters were seated on Air Force One, and denied, when questioned, that he knew about a reported $130,000 hush money payment made by his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to Daniels, whose real name is Stefanie Clifford.

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At this point, it had been about three months since The Wall Street Journal first reported about the payment made by Cohen days before the 2016 election and about two weeks since Daniels appeared on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" where she said that she and Trump had sex once in 2006.

Returning to Washington from West Virginia, where he had gone to talk about a new tax law, here's what Trump said when peppered with reporters' questions.

Asked if he knew about the $130,000 payment to Daniels, Trump said, "No."

Asked why Cohen paid her if the allegations weren't true, he said, "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael's my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael."

Asked if he knew where the $130,000 came from, Trump said, "No, I don't know."

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He then turned around and left.

Not even a month later, Trump admitted to reimbursing Cohen for the payment but denied he and Daniels had sex, saying the payment was extortion and, despite its timing, that the payment was not connected with his campaign.

The moment Trump denied knowing about payment to Stormy Daniels originally appeared on abcnews.go.com