White House disputes Daniels’ claim.
Trump lawyer says accusation of threat is made without proof
WASHINGTON >> The White House on Monday disputed adult film star Stormy Daniels’ claim that she was threatened to keep quiet over her alleged affair with Donald Trump and said the president continues to deny the relationship.
Daniels detailed her allegations in a widely watched interview with “60 Minutes” that sparked new legal wrangling between attorneys for the porn star and the president’s team. A lawyer for Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, demanded that Daniels publicly apologize to his client for suggesting he was involved in her intimidation. Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Cohen of defamation.
Trump, who frequently takes on his foes in person and on social media, remained uncharacteristically quiet about the matter Monday. He sent a cryptic tweet saying “fake news” has “never been more voluminous or more inaccurate” but it was unclear what exactly he was referring to.
Instead, he left the denials to his White House staff. Spokesman Raj Shah declined to say whether the president had watched Daniels’ interview, but said Trump did not believe any of the claims she made.
“The president strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims, and the only person who’s been inconsistent is the one making the claims,” Shah said.
But Daniels was on Trump’s mind this weekend in Palm Beach, Florida, where he had dinner Saturday night with Cohen at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump, according to one person who spent time with him, told guests that Daniels now owes him $21 million for breaking her silence, and that every time she talks, she owes him a million more. Trump appeared in good spirits, laughing off the fact that Daniels will be bringing her “Making America Horny Again” strip show to a nearby venue next month, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to disclose private conversations.
Mar-a-Lago member Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, told ABC Sunday that Trump told him “much of the Stormy Daniels stuff” is a “political hoax.”
In her interview, Daniels said she’d slept with Trump once, in 2006, shortly after Trump’s wife, Melania, gave birth to the president’s youngest son. She also said that a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, when she was with her infant daughter, and threatened her with physical harm if she went public with her story.
In a letter late Sunday night, an attorney for Cohen demanded that Daniels publicly apologize to his client.
“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,” wrote Brent H. Blakely. He said Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, should “cease and desist from making any further false and defamatory statements about my client.”
Daniels, in the revised lawsuit she filed Monday, alleges Cohen made a false statement that damaged her reputation when he released a statement in February that intimated she was lying.
“The president strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims, and the only person who’s been inconsistent is the one making the claims.”
— Raj Shah, White House staff spokesman