Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says she was physically threatened to keep alleged affair with Trump quiet
WASHINGTON – A porn actress who has alleged an extramarital affair with Donald Trump before he became president was threatened with physical harm, her lawyer said Friday, declining to provide further details.
Michael Avenatti told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Stormy Daniels – whose real name is Stephanie Clifford – wants to “tell her story” of her relationship with Trump.
Asked if Clifford had been physically threatened, Avenatti said “yes,” but he declined to say by whom. Avenatti said more detail would be revealed in an interview taped with CBS’ News “60 Minutes.”
“There’s the act and there’s the cover-up, and the American people are going to learn about both in the interview and beyond,” Avenatti said.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Friday she had no knowledge of the situation and hadn’t spoken with the president about it.
But, she said, “Obviously we take the safety and security of any person seriously” and “certainly would condemn anyone threatening any individual.”
Sanders has previously said Trump has made it clear that allegations of an affair with Clifford are false.
Clifford wants to invalidate a 2016 nondisclosure agreement under which she was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her relationship with Trump.
She filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming the “hush agreement” that was signed days before the presidential election is legally invalid because it wasn’t signed by Trump. The lawsuit refers to her beginning an “intimate relationship” with Trump in 2006 that continued “well into the year 2007.” She said the relationship included encounters in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and Beverly Hills, California. Trump married his current wife, Melania Trump, in 2005, and their son, Barron, was born in 2006.
Clifford also has also previously denied through a lawyer that the two had an affair, but Avenatti has said that was to meet the terms of the nondisclosure agreement. Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen has denied there was ever an affair.