https://www.npr.org/2018/05/02/607943366/giuliani-says-trump-did-know-about-stormy-daniels-payment
The link says: "On Wednesday night, Giuliani said Trump "didn't know the specifics of it [the payment to Daniels], but he did know the general arrangement. That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds, or whatever funds, doesn't matter. The president reimbursed that over a period of several months."
That could just mean "Some people are making claims against you." "Okay, you're my lawyer, handle it."
Trump doesn't necessarily know about the details he was asked about.
So either Trump doesn't care to know the details(which is uncharacteristic of him) or Guliani is lying to protect his client.
Also, Trump's own tweets contradict that he didn't know anything about it.
After 10 years working for Trump Cohen may have more independence and autonomous power than realized. If you are a billionaire there are probably always people trying to bring claims against you or your companies. There is probably a legal budget somewhere, like how Congress has a legal budget for claims against senators.
Cohen may have known that his firm was going to get reimbursed eventually and Trump may not have known about this particular payment at the time he was questioned. If you read into this Cohen is making some similar deals with other people. Daniels also claims that Trump didn't sign the confidentiality agreement, and so that's why she is free to speak about it without legal risk.
https://politicalwire.com/2018/03/07/trump-didnt-sign-agreement-stormy-daniels/Why Trump Didn’t Sign Agreement with Stormy Daniels
Michael Avenatti, attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, told the Today Show why he thinks Donald Trump didn’t sign the confidentiality agreement with his client.
Said Avenatti: “There were three parties to the agreement…two of the three signed. Mr. Trump did not sign. We believe that was so that he could later claim deniability, and therefore, from a legal perspective, we believe she’s free to talk.”
So Trump didn't even sign the agreement. This strengthens the suggestion that he didn't even know about the payment. Someone clearly dropped the ball somewhere if a payment was made, but the documents weren't fully signed. The person that didn't sign is the same person who said that he didn't know about the payment.
It's somewhat tenuous to suggest that Trump wanted the agreement, payed the money, but also wanted plausible deniability, and so left the confidentiality agreement incomplete. Pretty sure that is not legally advisable. That's just another logical loop that we need to justify to support your view.
Trump's original answer that he didn't know about the particular payment and they would need to talk to his lawyer to get more details. Why not take him at his word? I'm sure he at least knew about the allegations in general, and probably that something was being done about it like Giuliani said. I don't see why I have to assume all this stuff about Trump maliciously not signing the agreement and Cohen going to jail for "excessive campaign contributions" to fulfill this Trump = Liar fantasy going on.