OAN retracts report on Cohen affair
One America News, a right-wing cable news network, on Monday retracted a report claiming that Donald Trump’s former fixer had been the person who actually had an affair with the porn actor whose claims of a sexual relationship with Trump are key to his criminal trial.
The retraction came after the fixer, Michael Cohen, hired a leading defamation lawyer to address the false report, which was posted on the network’s website on March 27.
The lawyer, Justin Nelson, had represented Dominion Voting Systems in a suit against Fox News that cost that network $787.5 million to settle. Nelson worked with Cohen’s longtime lawyer, Danya Perry, in what was a remarkably quick about-face by OAN.
There are no monetary damages, but the story is being removed from the website “and all social media,” the network said in a statement on Monday.
“This retraction is part of a settlement reached with Michael Cohen,” the statement said. “OAN apologizes to Mr. Cohen for any harm the publication may have caused him.”
The central charges against Trump in his Manhattan trial are that he falsified business records to conceal a hush-money payment made to Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who said she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
The OAN website depended on a Twitter post from a user who claimed to have been told in 2018 by Daniels’ former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, that it was actually Cohen with whom she had the affair, and that the two had a plan to “bilk” the Trump Organization out of money.
Avenatti denied the claim and OAN updated the story with that denial a week later. Daniels also denied it.
“OAN’s retraction represents a victory for accountability,” Nelson said. “This retraction is not about money. It is about protecting the truth.”
Cohen said in a statement that the story’s premise was “beyond absurd” and “just plain stupid.”
He added that he and Daniels had never spoken to each other until 2021, when he interviewed her for his podcast, “Mea Culpa.”
The retraction came as Cohen is expected to be a key witness in the criminal case, which was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against Trump. Daniels may also testify.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Cohen, despite a gag order issued by the judge overseeing the case, Juan Merchan, barring him from attacking witnesses and others. Merchan is currently weighing whether Trump is in contempt of the gag order as a result of that invective.
In particular, Trump has attacked Cohen’s credibility, which will also be how Trump’s lawyers approach his former fixer during trial. The story by OAN, which has been a consistent booster of Trump’s political agenda, bolstered that strategy.
Its retraction Monday came after right-wing media outlets — including OAN — were put on warning about the publication of demonstrably false claims after a slew of defamation lawsuits following the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Two voting technology companies, Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, sued various outlets and commentators after they were falsely implicated, numerous times, in conspiracy theories about rigged votes that supposedly swayed the election for President Joe Biden.
Dominion’s libel case against Fox News was settled last year, on the day the trial was set to begin. The settlement is believed to be the largest ever for a defamation case. On April 16, Smartmatic reached a settlement with OAN over the amplification of lies about the 2020 election. The terms were not disclosed.
There are several other cases pending. OAN still faces a lawsuit from Dominion, and last year it settled a separate defamation claim brought against it by a former Dominion executive. Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion suit against Fox News in 2021, which is expected to go to trial in New York in 2025. Fox has accused Smartmatic of trying to suppress free speech with a frivolous lawsuit.
A far-right website, The Gateway Pundit, filed for bankruptcy last month in the face of lawsuits by former election workers who said they were harassed because of the false claims about stolen votes that the outlet published. Jim Hoft, its publisher, said in a statement on April 24 that the bankruptcy was “not an admission of fault or culpability,” but instead “a result of the progressive liberal lawfare attacks against our media outlet.”
While conservative outlets have been fighting off legal challenges, they have also faced a drop-off in audience since the last election. The Righting, a publication that tracks the conservative media sphere, reported a decrease in traffic to the topfive right-leaning websites of 80% or more in the four years since February 2020.