Michael Cohen apologizes to Stormy Daniels for ‘needless pain’

Former President Trump’s onetime fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen has apologized to adult-film star Stormy Daniels for the pain he says he caused her while working for Trump.

“Both of our stories will be forever linked with Donald Trump, but also with one another,” Cohen said to Daniels on a new episode of his podcast “Mea Culpa” according to The Associated Press. “Thanks for giving me a second chance.”

Cohen said he was sorry for the “needless pain” he caused Daniels involving hush money payments the attorney has said he gave her in 2016 in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump years earlier. 

Daniels, who has since written a book about the controversy and engaged in a cross-country tour at strip clubs following the scandal, said she has received numerous threats and been targeted by the former president’s supporters since the scandal came into public view.

“My battle is just now starting,” Daniels says to Cohen on the podcast “People are really upset, and they’re just going to get more pissed off at me.”

She added that she wanted to go back to her life before the scandal brought her into the limelight.

“If I could just wave a magic wand and make everything go back to the way it was before, I would absolutely do that,” she tells Cohen.

“I’ve already lost everything,” she added. “So I’m taking it all the way.”

Daniels has sued Trump for defamation after he denied her allegations and the hush money scheme. That case is still pending.

In 2018, Cohen was convicted of lying to Congress, tax evasion and other charges stemming from the payments he made to Daniels and other women who allege they had affairs with Trump.

He has been producing his podcast from a Manhattan apartment where he is serving the remaining time of a 36-month sentence after he was released as prisons try to battle the spread of the coronavirus. 

Daniels previously lashed out at Cohen in 2019 during his legal saga.