[ cheers and applause ] this is "nightline." >> tonight, presidential payment. president trump admitting he repaid michael cohen for that $130,000 payment to porn star stormy daniels. buying her silence about an alleged affair in 2006. even though the president denied knowledge of the payment weeks ago. the white house facing tough questions today. >> how are the american people to trust or believe what is said here and what is said by the president? >> did the president lie? the legal and political fallout. plus olympic idol. team usa's breakout sensation adam rippon stealing the show and america's heart on "dancing with the stars" and "stars on ice." now opening up about his rise to celebrity status to fellow olympian gus kenworthy.

>> are you america's sweetheart? >> here's the thing. >> tell me. >> i gave myself that title. >> i figured. and killer cameo. celine dion belting it out in her new show when a mysterious guest joins here on stage who totally doesn't belong. but first the "nightline 5." >> black friday is back. it's the mother of all sales. save on cute tops and adorable dresses. and fitbit trackers. yep, we said fitbit. it ends saturday. take an extra $10 off with coupon. jcpenney. style and value for all. with roomba from i-robot, your family can expect clean floors every day. two unique multi-surface brushes and power-lifting suction pick up dirt, large debris, and pet hair so your floors are always clean. you and roomba from i-robot. better together. >> number one in just 60 seconds.

good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight the white house facing tough questions about the president lied when he said he didn't know about his attorney, michael cohen's, payment to porn star stormy daniels. the president today tweeting that he reimbursed cohen for that payment through a monthly retainer. does that admission put him in legal jeopardy? here's abc's tom llamas. >> reporter: today, for the first time, president trump acknowledging he reimbursed his personal lawyer, michael cohen, for the $130,000 payoff to adult film star stormy daniels. >> nice to be back, sean. >> reporter: the revelations first came to light last night when the president's attorney, rudy giuliani, dropped the bombshell on fox news. >> i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money.

no campaign finance violation. >> so they funneled it through a law firm? >> funnel knowleded through a l and the president repaid it. >> reporter: this afternoon the white house on the defensive. >> as mayor giuliani stated, this was information that the president didn't know at the time, but eventually learned. >> how could he not have known he was paying him back? >> again, i'm not going to get into those details, i would refer you back to the statements, pretty lengthy statements made by giuliani, both last night and this morning, as well as the president's tweets, where they've both spoken about that. >> last night, rudy giuliani, for no good reason, seemed to offer up evidence that donald trump may have committed a crime in violation of federal campaign finance laws. it was an astounding revelation by trump's own lawyer. >> reporter: giuliani's statements, an apparent contradiction to the president's claims just last month. >> did you know about the $130,000 payment to stormy daniels? >> no, no. >> then why did michael cohen make it if there was no --

>> you'll have to ask michael cohen. michael's my attorney. and you'll have to ask michael. >> do you know where he got the money to make that payment? >> no, i don't know. >> reporter: in a previous statement to abc news, cohen said he facilitated the payment using a home equity line of credit. and that neither the trump organization nor the trump campaign were ever involved. but according to giuliani, who was also part of the campaign, the payoff was well known. >> everybody was nervous about this from the very beginning. i wasn't. i knew how much money donald trump put into that campaign. i said, $130,000? you could do a couple of check forth $130,000. when i heard cohen's retainer of $35,000 when he was doing no work for the president, i said, that's how he's repaying -- how he's repaying it. with a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes. from michael. >> guess what, that's fraud. that's illegal. >> reporter: stormy daniels' attorney on cnn last night seizing on the moment. >> i don't care where you line

up. you should be disgusted by what has happened in connection with the lies that you have been told over the last three months about this payment. >> there was no knowledge of any payments from the president, and he's denied all of these allegations. >> reporter: in a series of tweets this morning, the president admitting that he did reimburse cohen through a monthly retainer, adding that money from the campaign or campaign contributions played no role in this transaction. but those initial denials about the hush money the latest in a long list of statements by the president that have turned out to be untrue. >> will the president and the white house show what appears to be a blatant disregard for the truth, how are the american people to trust or believe what is said here, what is said by the president? >> we give the very best information that we have at the time. i do that every single day and will continue to do that every

day i'm in this position. >> reporter: sanders said when the president issued his denial on air force one, he did not yet have all the facts. >> mayor giuliani stated this wasn't something that was initially known. but later learned. >> we still don't know for certain what donald trump knew about this payment to stormy daniels and when he knew it. >> reporter: the justice department and the federal election commission had already been looking into how the payment was handled. >> campaign finance laws were only violated here if the payment to stormy daniels was for the purpose of influencing an election. my view is that all the facts strongly point to this being a payment to influence the election. this payment happened right before the general election. at the moment that stormy daniels was talking to other national major media outlets. >> reporter: but this morning on "fox and friends," giuliani was adamant no major crimes were committed, insisting the payment had nothing to do with the campaign. >> it wasn't for the campaign, it was to save their marriage, their reputations. >> if the jury were to decide

this payment is purely for personal reasons, then there was no campaign finance law violation. >> reporter: but in that same interview giuliani seemed to suggest the hush agreement was about the campaign after all. >> imagine if that came out on october 15th, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with hillary clinton. >> right, to make it go away, they made this -- >> cohen didn't even ask. cohen made it go away. >> donald trump could have done all of this without breaking any campaign finance laws. his committee would have had to report the expenditure, the payment to stormy daniels. but they didn't do that. and as is so often the case, here the cover-up is worse than the payment itself. it's the cover-up that gives rise to all these legal problems. >> reporter: this coming two weeks after giuliani joined president trump's legal team. during the campaign, he was the president's rottweiler. >> i am sick and tired of the defamation of donald trump! >> reporter: in the final months before the election, giuliani was praising trump for his ability to find loopholes in the

tax code. >> he's a genius. it's a perfectly legal application of the tax code. and he would have been a fool not to take advantage of it. >> how about a little hug? >> reporter: then when that "access hollywood" tape was released -- >> grab them by the [ bleep ]. do anything. >> reporter: giuliani once again ran to his defense on cnn. >> the fact is that men at times talk like that. >> reporter: then on fox news, two days before former fbi director james comey reopened the clinton e-mail investigation, giuliani seemed to foreshadow something ominous. >> got a surprise or two that you're going to hear in the next two days. >> reporter: that investigation ultimately damaging to the clinton campaign. on the day that comey reopened the investigation, giuliani went on the lars larson radio show saying there was a revolution inside the fbi about comey's original decision to not charge clinton. he said his sources included former fbi agents and current ones. >> i know that even from a few

active agents who obviously don't want to identify themselves -- >> reporter: if current agents had told giuliani anything about the investigation, this would have been a violation of federal law. the very next day, giuliani walking it back, claiming he was only talking about former agents. >> rudy giuliani has purported to know what's going on inside the fbi. i don't know how seriously that's being pursued by bob mueller but it is intriguing he's dropped those hints in the past. >> reporter: comey would later tell our george stephanopoulos that the fbi had been investigating whether giuliani had advance notice from the inside. >> you had your former boss, rudy giuliani, out there on television saying something big was coming. >> yes, i saw that. and i don't know whether that was part of what i ordered investigated. >> reporter: some are now wondering if last night's admission that president trump had repaid cohen came as a result of what had been seized in the fbi raid on michael cohen. >> this appears to be an effort by the trump legal team to get ahead of any revelations that might come out. >> reporter: meanwhile, on the world stage, president trump is moving closer to a summit with

north korea. and at the same time negotiating a release of american hostages. >> in such a dramatic way, he is shaking up not just the united states, but the global community. a lot of people, that's frightening. what he does on trade, what he does on the iran nuclear agreement, on the paris climate accord, on all kinds of alliances and arrangements around the world, he's a disrupter. >> there are so many different things that should be occupying the time of the white house, and there's been a stark admission from people inside the white house this is having an effect, it is having a drag, it is affecting the presidents' day day-life as he tries to do the business of running the country and participating in world affairs. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm tom llamas in new york. next, team usa's adam rippon with fellow olympian gus kimbrel on using his platform to champion lgbtq issues. so we removed the front wall

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he went from america's athlete to america's sweetheart. team usa's adam rippon has transcended olympic glory. now a top competitor on "dancing with the stars" and a hero to the lgbtq community. tonight he opens up about his surreal journey to "nightline" special correspondent gus kenworthy. >> reporter: from the most awesome moves at the olympic games to his front and center role in "stars on ice." and now his high-scoring steps on "dancing with the stars." even if he wanted to, you can't escape adam rippon.

as it turns out, neither can i. adam's skills on the ice got him a bronze medal at the winter olympics and massive attention from millions, including reese witherspoon and britney spears, both tweeting their fandom. >> i wasn't expecting the response that i got while i was there. and i think every time i got on my phone, it was like blowing up, like my twitter would crash, my instagram wouldn't open up. >> reporter: adam, winning over america with his combination of grace, charm, and self-dep ra casing sass. >> girl, i'm ready, what's taken you so long? i'm like a witch and you can't kill me. i keep coming back every year, every year i get better. when i went out and i was skating, i was super focused that i was going to do my best so that people weren't like, oh, this is some trash kid who has a big mouth. like no, he's a serious athlete who has a big mouth. and is trash. >> reporter: adam boldly declaring himself america's sweetheart. >> i want it to be about my

amazing skating. and being america's sweetheart. here's the thing. >> tell me. >> i gave myself that title. >> i figured. >> i was thinking like, you know, i feel in a very powerful place right now. i'm going to say that i'm america's sweetheart once and see what happens. i said it once in a press conference. and then i did something on the news. and i could read on the screen underneath and it was like, america's sweetheart, adam rippon. and i was like -- >> he arrived. >> yeah. >> reporter: off the ice and away from the spotlight, i know him as my friend adam who walked next to me at opening ceremonies. that moment was special for the honor we both shared, becoming one of the first openly gay male competitors in u.s. olympic history. one of the things that we both have in common, besides being olympians, is that in 2015, we both came out of the closet. what was the reaction that you received when that happened? >> so i think my coming out was

a little bit more under the radar. i had little to no negative feedback or people writing to me saying nasty things. basically, the only like messages that i would get over and over were like, is this really necessarily? coming from a really small town and feeling like i didn't have many people to look up to as a young kid, i felt like it was necessarily. >> you became a role model for the lgbtq community. what does that mean to you? >> what my mom taught me when i was young, that it's important to treat others well. the way that you want people to treat you is the way you should treat other people. not everybody responds to that. and not everybody will give you the respect that you think that you deserve or you want. but it doesn't matter. because you can teach them. if you show somebody a little bit of kindness, you can really change their whole world. ♪ happy birthday to you >> reporter: before adam was the darling of the winter olympics, he had to overcome a lifetime of challenges to get to the sport's

biggest stage. born one of six children raised by a single mother, his first two attempts to make the games ended in disappointment. >> that entire month in korea was crazy. it was something i'd wanted to do my entire life and i failed to do two times before. to actually be at the olympics and have that moment was so incredible. >> reporter: at the games, adam made news when he openly criticized the decision to have vice president mike pence, who has supported anti-gay positions in the past, lead the u.s. delegation. >> if that current administration was watching us right now what would you want to say to them? >> i would say that the young people of america are watching. and are acting. >> there was a lot of talk in korea about you having a sit-down with vice president pence. is that something that you have any desire to do? >> i think that if we aren't willing to listen to each other and have an open conversation, nothing will change and nothing will get done. on the flip side of that, the conversation, it's not for me. it's a conversation for that

trans man or woman that can't even go to the right bathroom. it's a conversation for the trans man or woman that can't join the military. it's a conversation for the muslim family that got broken up or had a mother, father, travel and then wasn't allowed back in. and it's an opportunity for them to have their stories told. >> absolutely. >> i'm just using my platform to the best of my ability. >> reporter: when olympians from the winter games visited the white house, some like adam and myself, chose not to meet with the president. >> if we see an administration that discriminates against trans members in the military or our own muslim-american citizens, that we need to speak up. because at one point or another, like it's great that we can be having this interview right now as two out men. but there was a time not too long ago where this would be like too weird. >> reporter: using his platform and his popularity to make a big statement. >> olympic bronze medallist,

adam rippon! >> reporter: three months since the olympics, adam is still competing, this time in l.a., trading his triple lux for the tang goal and the cha cha. ♪ on his first night on "dancing," adam blew the competition away. >> 8! >> 8! >> 8! >> do you think you'll have an advantage being a figure skater? a lot of people say you're already a dancer. do you think that's true or not true? >> i think the only advantage i have is that i've been working with music my entire life. >> and choreography. >> yes. do i know any dance steps? no. and it was a harsh learning curve. and it's every day is a whole new experience. >> reporter: since i taught him everything he knows on the ice, i thought i'd teach him dance moves too. i've never done it but you're going to jump on my back like a piggy back, put your legs out. i'm going to spin. ly say now, i'm going to flip you into my arms.

>> have you tried this with anyone? >> no, not yet. >> great. >> you ready? >> yeah. [ bleep ]. wait, i should flip my legs around. >> yes, flip your legs around. ready, america? wait, you didn't do it. >> [ bleep ]. >> i hope your dancing is going better than this. >> are you breathing deeply? >> try again. >> try to catch me. >> i know. go. you have to -- >> reporter: okay, maybe i'll stick to the slopes. for "nightline," i'm gus k kenworthy in detroit. >> gus and adam reunite next month cohosting new york's trevor project gala, to benefit at-risk lgbtq youth. celine dion has never sounded sweeter than her new video "ashes." it's the dance routine by an unlikely guest that really steals the show. ( ♪ ) it's the details that make the difference.

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finally tonight, celine dion has been killing it for years. but now she's partnering with a genuine assassin. ♪ you use these tears to put out

the fire ♪ >> who's that high-heeled hero sashaying on the stage? it's deadpool finding his feet for an interpretive dance to celine dion's new song "ashes." the two teamed up for the marvel mutants upcoming movie sequel and have been inseparable since. now putting a new spin on the term "powerball lad." go, celene. thank you for watching "nightline." "nightline." as always online on our only one candidate for governor when students were stuck in failing schools, led the fight to turn them around. as mayor of l.a., antonio villaraigosa invested in classrooms and security. graduation rates soared. antonio for governor.

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