Watchdog files complaint over Trump lawyer’s alleged porn star payment

Common Cause, a nonprofit watchdog group, filed a complaint Monday with the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) claiming President Trump’s lawyer violated campaign finance law by paying a porn star to cover up an alleged affair with Trump.

Common Cause said in its complaints that Michael Cohen’s alleged $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels was an unreported in-kind contribution to the president’s 2016 campaign.

The organization called on the Justice Department and FEC to “fully investigate” the possible violation.

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The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Cohen, an attorney for the Trump Organization at the time and now Trump’s personal lawyer, arranged for Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to receive $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement before the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen used a private company and a pseudonym to funnel the money to Daniels, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Cohen denied to the newspaper that Trump had a sexual encounter with Daniels but did not comment on the alleged payment.

In Touch magazine later published an interview with Daniels from 2011 in which she details her affair with Trump, which she claims happened shortly after his youngest son, Barron, was born.