Stormy Daniels’s lawyer said late Wednesday that he was left “speechless” by the revelation that President Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for a secret payment that the adult-film actress says was meant to keep her from going public with allegations that she had an affair with Trump.
“I have to tell you — I am rarely, as your viewers know, rendered speechless — but I am absolutely speechless at this revelation and this admission,” Daniels’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
{mosads}Avenatti’s comments came shortly after former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), now one of Trump’s lawyers, revealed in a Fox News interview that the president reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement.
That revelation directly contradicted Trump’s and the White House’s claims that he knew nothing of the payment, which Cohen has acknowledged making.
Avenatti said on MSNBC that that contradiction exposed an outright lie by the president and should “outrage” Americans.
“I don’t care whether you’re on the left or on the right or in the center. I don’t care what your party affiliation is,” he said. “You deserve to be told the truth by your president and the people that stand at the podium at the White House briefing station or podium at the White House briefing conference, press conference, and answer questions.”
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, months after the president’s wife gave birth to their son. She is currently suing to void the nondisclosure agreement.
In a series of tweets on Thursday morning, Trump appeared to confirm that he reimbursed Cohen for the $130,000 payment to Daniels, but defended the nondisclosure agreement as “common among celebrities and people of wealth” and said the payment was necessary to silence the adult-film actress’s “false and extortionist accusations.”
He also insisted that the payment was not at all tied to his 2016 presidential campaign.