Michael Cohen's lawyer reacts to Stormy Daniels' "60 Minutes" interview
WASHINGTON -- Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels claims she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006. Now, in the wake of her "60 Minutes" interview Sunday, the legal documents are flying and even the lawyers have lawyers. Those documents include a cease-and-desist order from the president's lawyer to Daniels -- and a defamation suit by Daniels against the lawyer.
The White House pushed back on Daniels' claim on "60 Minutes" that she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
"The president strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims," White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said.
Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump tweeted a general reference to "fake news," but did not mention Daniels by name.
So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2018
Daniels was introduced to Mr. Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. She says Mr. Trump later invited her to dinner in a Los Angeles hotel suite. even though she wasn't attracted to him.
"Did you want to have sex with him?" Anderson Cooper asked Daniels on "60 Minutes."
"No. But I didn't -- I didn't say no. I'm not a victim, I'm not," she replied. "He was like, 'Wow, you, you are special. You remind me of my daughter.'"
Daniels says five years after the encounter, she was threatened by a man in a Las Vegas parking lot.
"I was in a parking lot going to a fitness class with my infant daughter," she told Cooper. "A guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.' He leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom,' and then he was gone."
Daniels took that as a direct threat.
She says her subsequent fear convinced her to accept a $130,000 payout for her silence from Mr. Trump's attorney Michael Cohen just 11 days before the 2016 presidential election.
Sunday night, a lawyer for Cohen sent Daniels a cease-and-desist order, denying his client sent a "thug" to threaten Daniels.
Cohen also claims Daniels faces millions in damages for breaching their nondisclosure agreement. But Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, says the agreement isn't valid, in part because it was never signed by Mr. Trump. Monday, Avenatti filed new court papers accusing Cohen of defaming Daniels.
"This is a man who has a history of thuggish behavior using intimidation tactics in trying to step on little people," Avenatti told "CBS This Morning."
The timing of the Daniels' so-called "hush payment" could expose Cohen and the Trump campaign to possible legal jeopardy, according to CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman.
"It's very difficult, when you look at," Klieman said. "In an 11-day span from the date of the signing this nondisclosure agreement to the election itself -- why would they do this agreement at that time? The obvious answer is to affect the election results."
That could trigger a civil or criminal prosecution by the Federal Election Commission. But Cohen's lawyer David Schwartz says his client did nothing wrong.
"Mr. Cohen paid the $130,000, but the reason is to protect business, protect reputation and to protect family," Schwartz said Monday. "You cannot speculate that it was to elect somebody president of the United States."
First lady Melania Trump has not responded to the Daniels interview. Shortly after it aired, Mrs. Trump's spokeswoman tweeted a reminder that the Trumps' son is a minor and that his name should be kept out of news stories. The first lady is spending the week at Mar-a-Lago for her son's spring break.