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East Oregonian
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Giuliani: Trump repaid Cohen Richardson hires
$130K for payment to porn star outgoing state CIO
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
By CATHERINE LUCEY
AND JILL COLVIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a
startling revelation, President Donald
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said
Wednesday that Trump repaid his
personal attorney $130,000 in a deal
made just before the 2016 election to
keep porn star Stormy Daniels quiet
about her tryst with the president,
directly contradicting Trump’s state-
ments about the hush money.
During an appearance on Fox News
Channel’s “Hannity,” the former New
York City mayor and U.S. attorney
said the money to repay Michael
Cohen had been “funneled ... through
the law firm and the president repaid
it.”
Asked if Trump knew about the
arrangement, Giuliani said: “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 things like this for my
clients. I don’t burden them with every
single thing that comes along. These
are busy people.”
The comments contradict state-
ments made by Trump several weeks
ago, when he said he didn’t know
about the payment to Daniels as part of
a nondisclosure agreement she signed
days before the presidential election.
Asked aboard Air Force One
whether he knew about the payment,
Trump said flatly: “No.” Trump also
said he didn’t know why Cohen had
made the payment or where he got the
money.
In a phone interview with “Fox and
Friends” last week, however, Trump
appeared to muddy the waters, saying
that Cohen represented him in the
“crazy Stormy Daniels deal.”
The White House referred ques-
tions to the president’s personal legal
team.
Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal
team last month, said the president had
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
In this 2016 file photo, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani arrives at
the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
repaid Cohen over several months,
indicating the payments continued
through at least the presidential tran-
sition, if not into his presidency. He
also said the payment “is going to turn
out to be perfectly legal” because “that
money was not campaign money.”
No debt to Cohen is listed on
Trump’s personal financial disclosure
form, which was certified on June 16,
2017.
Giuliani also described the payment
to Daniels as “a very regular thing for
lawyers to do.”
Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti,
called the comment “a stunning reve-
lation.”
“Mr. Trump evidently has partic-
ipated in a felony and there must be
serious consequences for his conduct
and his lies and deception to the
American people,” he said.
Giuliani made the statements to
Fox host Sean Hannity, who has his
own connection to the case. It was
recently revealed in court that Hannity
is one of Cohen’s clients. Hannity
has described his personal dealings
BOOKS: Children who
read a lot have strong
foundation of knowledge
Continued from 1A
or the transgender issue,”
Mooney said. “But with
some of the things we feel
are too graphic.”
She said the issue was
first brought to a building
principal’s attention by
a teacher. The principals
then reviewed the book and
brought their concerns to the
attention of the state Battle
of the Books committee,
who chose to keep the book
on the list.
Mooney said the Battle
of the Books board said
students wouldn’t be asked
questions of a graphic
nature.
“But they’d still have to
read (the book),” Mooney
said.
Mooney said deciding to
pull out of the competition
was an administrative deci-
sion, made by both her and
the building principals.
Vickie Read, a member
of the Pendleton chapter
of Parents and Friends
of Lesbians and Gays
(PFLAG), said she was
disappointed in the decision.
“I think it sends a huge
statement to any family
or child in the Hermiston
School
District
that’s
transgender that they’re
invisible,” Read said.
Read said she disagreed
with the district’s claim that
the book was just not appro-
priate for that age group.
“Children who read a lot
have a real strong founda-
tion of knowledge, that kind
of surprises us in the older
generation,” she said.
She added that many
children may already know
a transgender child.
“My grandson knows
a transgender child in the
third grade,” she said.
She said she had the
book, but had not yet read it.
Regarding the district’s
statement that portions of
the book were too graphic,
Read said she felt teachers
would be able to explain
difficult concepts to chil-
dren.
Hermiston schools will
instead participate in their
own inter-district compe-
tition, using titles from
past years’ lists. Middle
and high school teams will
still participate in the state
competition. In their letter,
the principals said that if the
list for the 2019-2020 state
competition was deemed
appropriate, Hermiston’s
elementary schools would
once again participate.
The Cascade School
District,
near
Salem,
also decided to pull their
elementary schoolers out of
the statewide competition
this week.
with Cohen as centered on real estate
advice and said that it “never rose to
any level that I needed to tell anyone
that I was asking him questions.”
Daniels, whose legal name is
Stephanie Clifford, says she had a
sexual encounter with Trump in 2006,
months after his third wife gave birth
to his youngest child, and was paid to
keep quiet as part of a nondisclosure
agreement she is now seeking to
invalidate.
She has also filed a defamation
suit against Trump after he questioned
a composite sketch she released of a
man she says threatened her to stay
quiet.
The White House has said Trump
denies having a relationship with
Daniels.
Cohen had said previously:
“Neither the Trump Organization
nor the Trump campaign was a party
to the transaction with Ms. Clifford,
and neither reimbursed me for the
payment, either directly or indirectly.”
He notably did not include the presi-
dent personally.
SALEM — Outgoing state
Chief Information Officer
Alex Pettit has a new job —
but he won’t be going far.
Petitt will join Secretary
of State Dennis Richardson’s
office to shore up elections
infrastructure and lead the
agency’s emergency manage-
ment program and planning,
according to an internal
announcement of the hire
obtained by the EO/Pamplin
Capital Bureau.
The news comes on the
heels of Pettit’s resignation,
effective June 1, as state CIO,
the reasons for which remain
unclear.
The move might raise
eyebrows: Richardson is the
top-ranking Republican in
state government, and the
only Republican in statewide
elected office. As CIO, Pettit
answered to Gov. Kate Brown,
a Democrat.
There’s been some tension
between the offices. Earlier
this year, top staff in the Secre-
tary of State and Governor’s
offices had to meet to clear
up a controversy about public
statements by a gubernatorial
staffer accusing Richardson of
politicizing audits.
Brown said in a statement
April 6 that she and Pettit
“mutually agreed” that the
time was right for his resig-
nation and for a new CIO
“to be put in place to build
on (Pettit’s) work and move
the Governor’s vision for IT
governance forward.”
Pettit was initially hired
in 2014 by former Gov. John
Kitzhaber during the Cover
Oregon debacle — the failed
statewide health insurance
exchange — to put an end
to the state’s long history of
failed information technology
projects.
Pettit instituted a rigid
system where his office had
responsibility for ensuring
agencies were tracking the
progress of their projects,
rather than letting them run off
the rails.
He was even asked to step in
directly to try to rescue Cover
Oregon, setting up a manda-
tory meeting used to hold
contractors and employees
accountable.
Insiders said under his
leadership the project made
significant progress. But in the
end, he concluded the system
had an insurmountable design
flaw, meaning it could not be
saved without massive addi-
tional expenditures — leading
the state to use the federal
health insurance exchange
instead.
Richardson called the Pettit
hire an “absolute coup.”
The secretary of state
said the outgoing CIO’s
background in cybersecurity
meshed with his focus, and is
part of a push to hire “world-
class people” for the office.
“I have great respect for
him,” Richardson said.
Asked why Pettit no longer
worked in his old job, Rich-
ardson said, “My sense is that
he was given responsibility but
without authority to make the
changes necessary.”
“I know that he’s very
excited to work for us,” said
Richardson’s chief of staff,
Deb Royal. “And we’re very
excited to have him.”
Pettit’s new title at the
Secretary of State’s Office
will be business continuity
program manager.
BUDGET: Expansion gives county the
breathing space to boost public safety
Continued from 1A
as the major expansion of
Lamb Weston. That gives the
county the breathing space to
boost public safety, he said.
“In the case of both the
dispatch and the jail, because
we’ve been short staffed,
we’ve had a lot of overtime
charges,” Murdock said,
“We’re trying to replace the
overtime charges with staff,
with people.”
Rowan and Murdock each
said the new position in the
jail helps to bolster the security
of staff and inmates. The jail
averages well more than 200
inmates a day, and Murdock
said that means the county
needs to give jail Commander
Stewart Harp the staff to
handle that.
The county continues to
pile about $1 million a year
from federal funding into a
reserve to offset the crunch
from the Public Employees
Retirement System. The fund
in 2018-19 increases to a little
more than $4 million. And
the county’s cash reserve will
stand about $500,000 shy of
the $5 million goal.
“That $5 million sounds
like a huge cash reserve,”
Murdock said, “but county
revenue does not come in
as timely and as reliably as
EO file photo
A Umatilla County sheriff’s deputy walks a handcuffed suspect to a patrol vehicle
on Highway 11 north of Pendleton following a high-speed pursuit in 2014. The sher-
iff’s office for fiscal year 2018-19 adds another road deputy, brining the total to 19 in
the criminal division.
expenditures. We run a lot
of state contracts and special
grants, and we get the money,
but if it does not come in a
timely fashion, we have to
have revenue to tide us over
to make sure we can pay our
bills.”
The county commissioners
adopt the budget in June, and
the funding begins July 1.
The sheriff’s office already
is developing candidate
pools. Rowan said that way
the department can hire new
officers come the beginning
of July, start their training and
get them into the state’s public
safety academy if they need to
obtain certificates.
“That $5 million sounds like a huge cash reserve.”
— George Murdock, Umatilla County Commissioner
SIP: Pelleberg estimates city of Umatilla has spent $6 million
Continued from 1A
off Beach Access Road
in Umatilla and one new
development that Umatilla
annexed into the city last
year. According to Pelleberg,
that means “two-thirds”
is located in city limits,
meaning the city is being
generous by offering to take
only half of the $4 million.
The county doesn’t see it
that way.
Based on the fact that
all three developments are
not expected to be of equal
size or value, the county has
offered a formula based on
the percentage of the three
developments’
assessed
value that falls within
Umatilla’s city limits. That
percentage of the $4 million
would then be split evenly
between city and county.
Umatilla County counsel
Doug Olsen said the city
of Umatilla would likely
receive about $1 million of
the $4 million per year under
that arrangement, in addition
to other revenue generated
from different parts of the
deal with the developer
(non-disclosure agreements
prevent Pelleberg and Olsen
from naming the developer
but publicly available records
tie the projects to Amazon).
The Strategic Investment
Program allows counties
to offer a 15-year property
tax break to companies as
an incentive to build there.
Under state statute, the first
$25 million in real market
value of the project is taxed
at the usual rate and distrib-
uted to taxing districts such
as cities, school districts and
fire districts. A flat commu-
nity service fee of $500,000
per year is also assessed,
to be divided between the
districts. Additional “annual
improvement
payments”
from the company can also
be negotiated as desired,
which is where the $4 million
comes from.
“The terms of the statute
are fairly broad (on the annual
improvement payments),”
Olsen said.
He said the county’s offer
was according to previous
arrangements on SIP and
enterprise zones, which
offer property tax breaks to
companies building in certain
pre-approved zones.
However,
Pelleberg
pointed to a recent enterprise
zone deal with Lamb Weston,
where the county and city of
Hermiston will evenly split
annual $1 million payments
by Lamb Weston in lieu of
property taxes, even though
Lamb Weston’s new $250
million expansion is outside
Hermiston city limits. While
laws governing SIP agree-
ments and enterprise zones
are different, Pelleberg says
the basic principal should be
the same: a 50/50 split.
He estimates the city has
spent roughly $6 million
accommodating
Vadata,
including new water and
sewer infrastructure built or
in the works, roads, mainte-
nance, attorney fees, studies
and staff time in departments
such as the planning depart-
ment. One recent expenditure
he pointed to was $300,000
for engineering studies for a
planned extension of water
to the Lind Road area. A 50
percent split on the $4 million
could help reimburse the city
for expenditures like that.
“$2 million a year for the
next 15 years is a pretty big
deal to this community,” he
said.
Olsen said the SIP agree-
ment with the developer was
negotiated using county staff.
Pelleberg contends the city
should have had a seat at the
table for the original negoti-
ations. Olsen said the reason
the city was not initially
included is it did not annex
the Lind Road property until
after the SIP agreement was
submitted.
The city signed off on the
SIP agreement with Amazon
and the county, but the agree-
ment states that “Distribution
of the proceeds shall be
governed by a separate agree-
ment between the county and
the city.” That agreement
has not yet been signed, and
the city recently submitted
a public records request
for a variety of documents
pertaining to the drafting of
that agreement. Pelleberg
said the county has not been
forthcoming about its reason
behind the agreement
In this particular SIP
agreement, according to
a report to the Oregon
Business
Development
Commission by business
incentives coordinator Art
Fish, the three new data
center projects in Umatilla
County could potentially
reach a total value of $2.75
billion at full build-out. The
package negotiated between
the county and Amazon, Fish
reported in a “very rough,
general estimate,” could save
Vadata about $176 million in
taxes over the course of the
agreement.