Billionaire Phil Ruffin says he’s the Kansan mentioned at Michael Cohen hearing - McClatchy Washington Bureau

Billionaire Phil Ruffin said Wednesday that he is the anonymous Kansas businessman mentioned during the marathon questioning of President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen.

“Yes, I am,” said Ruffin, a casino mogul who grew up in Wichita and has close ties to Trump.

Ruffin’s connection to the president surfaced when Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, asked Cohen at a House Oversight Committee hearing who paid $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by former students of the defunct Trump University. The school promised insights into secrets of the real estate business, but students said they were defrauded.

“I believe it was Mr. Trump. I don’t know the answer,” Cohen replied.

Speier responded that “there’s some reference to a businessman in Kansas being involved in that. Are you familiar with that?” Cohen said he was not aware of that person.

Ruffin, who co-owns the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas with the president, said in a phone interview Wednesday he had no involvement in the Trump University case.

But Ruffin said that Speier might be referring to a $28 million payment Trump received from the hotel in 2018, the same year the class action was settled. Trump could have used that money to pay off the settlement.

“He had $28 million in back fees that he never collected,” Ruffin said in a phone call Wednesday. “The hotel paid him [what] was owed to him. I don’t know what he did… It was his money.”

Ruffin said that Trump did not charge interest on the fees owed to him and that as co-owner half of the money was coming out of the president’s own pocket.

Speier’s office would not confirm whether Ruffin was the Kansan she was referencing during her questioning of Cohen. Ruffin primarily lives in Nevada now, but continues to maintain deep ties to Wichita after living most of his life in Kansas.

Trump’s has a long-standing friendship with Ruffin. He was best man at Ruffin’s 2008 wedding, which took place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Ruffin was an early mega-contributor to the Make America Great PAC and served as a campaign surrogate in Kansas ahead of the 2016 caucus.

Ruffin emphasized that he does not personally know Cohen and had no comment on his testimony.

Trump’s legal team did not address the Trump University case or Ruffin when asked about Speier’s references to a Kansas businessman. Instead, the legal team provided a statement that rebutted another portion of Cohen’s testimony.

The McClatchy Washington Bureau’s Kate Irby and Wichita Eagle’s Carrie Rengers contributed to this report.

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