By Michael Finnegan
Los Angeles Times
Stormy Daniels accused President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen of defamation and charged that he broke federal law by paying the porn star to stay silent on her alleged affair with Trump.
In a revised lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles federal court, Daniels said Cohen effectively called her a liar last month in a public statement challenging her story of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Daniels sued March 6 to void the agreement that bars her from talking about the alleged affair.
The updated complaint says the pact was an unlawful scheme to cover up the $130,000 payment that Daniels received 11 days before the November 2016 presidential election. Cohen set up a shell company to pay Daniels, who says it was effectively a campaign donation to keep voters from learning of Trump’s extramarital affair.
The confidentiality agreement circumvented federal laws that require public disclosure of campaign contributions, and thus it’s invalid, the lawsuit claims.
The latest allegations came shortly after White House spokesman Raj Shah attacked Daniels’ credibility.
“The president doesn’t believe that any of the claims that Ms. Daniels made last night in the interview are accurate,” Shah said of her appearance Sunday on “60 Minutes.”
Shah declined to comment on allegations that Cohen broke federal law when he arranged payment of the hush money.
“The campaign or Mr. Cohen can address anything with respect to their actions,” Shah said.
Cohen, who had dinner with Trump over the weekend at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Brent H. Blakely, a lawyer for Cohen, demanded a retraction and apology from Daniels, saying she suggested on “60 Minutes” that Cohen was behind a physical threat to the porn actress.
Daniels, 39, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told the CBS show that a man confronted her and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011. He warned her not to go public with her story, she said.
Daniels did not accuse Cohen of arranging the threat. But her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said Monday on NBC’s “Today” show that it had to have been Cohen or someone else involved with Trump.
Cohen’s lawyer told Avenatti in a letter Sunday night that statements blaming Cohen for the threat were false and defamatory.
“In truth, Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred,” Blakely wrote.
Daniels told “60 Minutes” that the man in the parking lot told her to leave Trump alone, glanced at her baby and said, “It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Blakely demanded she and Avenatti make clear through the national media “that you have no facts or evidence whatsoever to support your allegations that my client had anything whatsoever to do with this alleged thug.”
Avenatti responded by taunting Cohen.
“Will this guy ever come clean with the American people or is he more interested in trying to role play Ray Donovan (badly),” Avenatti told the Los Angeles Times in a text message, referring to the television show about a shady fixer.
The White House spokesman said Trump did not believe Daniels was threatened because there was nothing to corroborate her story.
More broadly, Shah said, Trump “strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims, and the only person who’s been inconsistent is the one making the claims.”
Trump actually has never spoken publicly about Daniels, leaving the task to Cohen and White House press aides.
As for the rationale for the $130,000 payment, Shah said, “False charges are settled out of court all the time. You have to ask Michael Cohen about the specifics.”
Preliminary Nielsen ratings overnight indicated that the “60 Minutes” episode with Daniels was one of the most watched in years.
The ethics group Common Cause has filed complaints alleging that the hush money Cohen wired to Daniels before the November 2016 election was an illegal secret campaign contribution. Cohen denies the payment was meant to influence the election.
With a surge of news on Daniels and a former Playboy model who was also paid during the 2016 campaign to stay silent about her alleged affair with Trump, a spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump urged the media to stop mentioning the couple’s son, Barron.
At the time of Trump’s alleged extramarital affairs, Barron, who turned 12 last week, was a baby.
The first lady remained at Mar-a-Lago when the president returned to the White House on Sunday night after a weekend getaway that included a dinner with Cohen at the Trump estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
Cohen has a history of using aggressive tactics on Trump’s behalf.
NBC anchor Megyn Kelly, who sparred with Trump when he was running for president, posted a sample Sunday night on Twitter: Cohen’s 2015 threats against Tim Mak, then a reporter at the Daily Beast.
“Speaking of #michaelcohen threats (#StormyDaniels), here is what then-daily beast (now npr) reporter @timkmak says he rec’vd from Cohen while writing a piece on DT’s divorce,” Kelly wrote.
Mak asked Cohen about a deposition by Ivana Trump in which the president’s first wife alleged that Trump raped her in 1989.
“I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have,” Cohen responded, according to the Daily Beast.
With a burst of profanity, Cohen warned Mak to tread lightly, because he was going to do something disgusting to the reporter.
“You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up … for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet,” Cohen told the Daily Beast, adding, “you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it.”
When Ivana Trump’s statement about rape became public after the couple’s 1991 divorce, she said the incident had made her feel “violated,” but did not want her accusation interpreted “in a literal or criminal sense.”
Avenatti sought to draw attention to Cohen’s threats against the Daily Beast by posting a story about it on Twitter.
“This is a man who has a history of thuggish behavior, using intimidation tactics, and trying to step on little people,” Avenatti told “CBS This Morning.” “And as it relates to my client, it’s going to come to an end, and we’re going to show the American people exactly who Michael Cohen is.”
