Breaking: Stormy Daniels' attorney @MichaelAvenatti tells @NicolleDWallace he expects Trump's attorney Michael Cohen to plead the 5th if motion to stop defamation suit fails
More now on #DeadlineWH pic.twitter.com/LqWIAMyKSS— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) April 12, 2018
The attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels says that President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen is threatening to plead the Fifth Amendment if an upcoming motion to stay a defamation suit from Daniels is not successful.
In an interview with MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Michael Avenatti said that Cohen wants to delay the suit on the grounds that he will plead the Fifth if it does not.
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“We’ve learned within the last two hours that Michael Cohen will be filing a motion, an emergency motion to stay, or temporarily stop our case,” Avenatti said. “And the grounds for that motion are going to be that it is his intention to plead the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination if our case goes forward.”
Avenatti added that Cohen fears finding himself in “potential criminal jeopardy,” because he knows “where a lot of bodies are buried.”
“We’re going to oppose that stay,” he added, “we think we have very good grounds as to why there should be no delay in our case.”
News of Cohen’s upcoming motion comes just days after his offices were raided by FBI agents working on a referral “in part” from the special counsel’s office, during which they reportedly seized information related to both Daniels’s case and other ongoing investigations.
Trump, meanwhile, has attacked the raid as a “disgrace” and reignited speculation that he is considering firing Robert Mueller, the special counsel.
“It’s a real disgrace,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”
“We’ll see what happens. … Many people have said ‘you should fire him,’ ” Trump added when asked if he will fire Mueller. “Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing, that’s a big statement.”
Cohen admits to paying Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to stay quiet about an alleged affair between Daniels and Trump in 2006. He has said Trump did not instruct him to make the payment.
Last week, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he didn’t know about the payment, and referred questions about it back to Cohen.
“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael,” he said when questioned about the payment.