Stormy Daniels claims Avenatti filed suit against Trump ‘against my wishes’

Stormy Daniels, the adult-film star who claims she had a 2006 affair with President Trump, said Wednesday that her attorney Michael Avenatti filed a defamation suit against Trump without her permission.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, Daniels asserted that an April lawsuit filed by Avenatti on her behalf claiming that the president defamed her by tweeting that she was involved in a “con job” earlier this year was in fact filed “against [Daniels’s] wishes.” The case was dismissed by a federal judge last month.

{mosads}Avenatti, she continued in the statement, “has not treated me with the respect and deference an attorney should show to a client.”

“He has spoken on my behalf without my approval. He filed a defamation case against Donald Trump against my wishes. He repeatedly refused to tell me how my legal defense fund was being spent,” Daniels told the Daily Beast.

“Now he has launched a new crowdfunding campaign using my face and name without my permission and attributing words to me that I never wrote or said,” she continued.

“I don’t want to hurt Michael, but it’s time to set the record straight. The truth has always been my greatest ally,” Daniels concluded, noting that she had not made any decisions about her legal representation going forward.

Avenatti, who was arrested earlier this month on a possible felony domestic violence charge that was later downgraded to consideration for a misdemeanor charge, responded in an emailed statement that did not respond specifically to Daniels’s allegations about the lawsuit but offered more information about her legal fund.

“I am and have always been Stormy’s biggest champion. I have personally sacrificed an enormous amount of money, time and energy toward assisting her because I believe in her. I have always been an open book with Stormy as to all aspects of her cases and she knows that,” Avenatti wrote in an email. “You need only look back at her numerous prior interviews where she states we talk and communicate multiple times every day about her cases.”

“The retention agreement Stormy signed back in February provided that she would pay me $100.00 and that any and all other monies raised via a legal fund would go toward my legal fees and costs,” he added. Instead, the vast majority of the money raised has gone toward her security expenses and similar other expenses.”

The most recent crowdfunding push, he added, was “a refresh of the prior campaign” designed to alleviate Daniels’s security and legal expenses.

Avenatti has said that he is considering a 2020 run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and earlier this year announced a slate of progressive policies he supports ahead of a potential bid.