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Trump files annual financial disclosure; could reveal porn star payment

Posted at 8:32 PM, May 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-15 20:32:45-04

President Donald Trump has submitted his annual financial disclosure with the Office of Government Ethics, the agency tweeted on Tuesday, though it remains unclear whether the form contains details about the $130,000 hush payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels.

“Today, the President filed his annual financial disclosure report with OGE and it is currently under review,” a tweet from the ethics office said. Last year it took the agency about two days to make Trump’s disclosure form public after it was submitted.

Last year’s disclosure revealedthat Trump’s total income from January 2016 through January 2017 was somewhere between $600 million and $650 million.

This year’s document will provide a more robust accounting of Trump’s finances, and the state of his businesses, fifteen months into his White House tenure.

It will also be scrutinized for any sign of the hush money payment made to Daniels. Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen orchestrated the 2016 payment, but Trump reimbursed him, according to Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

The form will cover all of 2017 and some of 2018. Giuliani indicated in an interview earlier this month that Trump reimbursed Cohen in installments.

The form Trump filed with the Office of Government Ethics last year, which was 98 pages long, contained no mention of the Daniels payment.

The agency’s former director Walter Shaub has argued this week Trump must disclose whether he held debts exceeding $10,000 — including his debt to Cohen for the hush money payment — or risk breaking federal law.

Trump has been secretive about his personal finances. He was the first presidential candidate in decades to refuse to release his personal tax returns, and hasn’t released them as President.

The disclosure forms that he’s required to submit to the ethics office provide a more limited view of his finances. Last year’s report showed he had $1.4 billion in assets.

“President Trump and Vice President Pence filed their financial disclosure forms with the Office of Government Ethics today, May 15,” White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said Tuesday. “The forms will be available through the Office of Government Ethics.”

It is not clear how long this year’s review will take to be made public.