Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, has denied Donald Trump had anything to do with a ‘hush agreement’ with adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who Trump is alleged to have had a year-long affair with. It was the same year newlywed Melania Trump was home with newborn son, Barron Trump. And the same year he is alleged to have propositioned several other adult film stars.
Cohen tried to hide the settlement by creating an LLC and using pseudonyms in the settlement. He later incredibly claimed that he paid the six-figure settlement out of his own pocket. He simply forked over $130,000 out of his own pocket, with no expectation of repayment, merely out of the goodness of his heart. You know, lawyers! He denied Trump or the Trump Organization had anything to do with the settlement. From the New York Times last month:
In the most detailed explanation of the 2016 payment made to the actress, Stephanie Clifford, Mr. Cohen, who worked as a counsel to the Trump Organization for more than a decade, said he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the campaign for the payment.
“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Mr. Cohen said in a statement to The New York Times. “The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”
Now NBC News has emails showing Michael Cohen was communicating with Daniels’ attorneys via his Trump Organization email account:
But an email uncovered in the last 24 hours and provided to NBC News by Clifford's current attorney, Michael Avenatti, shows First Republic Bank and Cohen communicated about the money using his Trump company email address, not his personal gmail account.
"I think this document seriously calls into question the prior representation of Mr. Cohen and the White House relating to the source of the monies paid to Ms. Clifford in an effort to silence her," said Avenatti, who is representing Clifford in a lawsuit against Trump.
Attorney Michael Avenatti went on to hint that maybe the money didn’t come from Cohen’s account after all:
"The $130,000 question, however, is from whose account was the money transferred on Oct. 26, 2017." Avenatti said.
He said the email "suggests" it might have been a Trump Organization account since the correspondence was through Cohen's Trump email. He said it was "curious" that after he got the email, he immediately forwarded it to his personal gmail and then used gmail to forward it to Davidson, presumably to show the money was ready to be wired.
"Mr. Cohen should immediately provide the prior emails [between him and the bank] to show exactly where the money came from," Avenatti said.
Earlier this week, Sarah Huckabee Sanders further confirmed Trump’s involvement when she tried to bat down questions from the White House press corps, saying Trump had recently won an arbitration claim against the pornographic actress. That statement ended up confirming Trump was part of the “hush agreement” and ensuing arbitration! Trump was reportedly enraged by his press secretary's handling of the questions.
For her part, “Stormy Daniels” is moving forward as if her nondisclosure agreement will be null and void, leaving her free to talk about her affair with Donald Trump. This week she filmed an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes and she was on the set at CNN while her attorney answered questions on Anderson Cooper 360.
She’s also engaging more on Twitter, calling out trolls in a rather hilarious way.
As MSNBC Morning Joe guest Benjamin Wittes relayed to the morning crew, the problem with Stormy’s case is that if she ignores or gets out of her nondisclosure agreement with Trump, how many others will feel emboldened to do the same?
The biggest implication is that there are presumably other such agreements and the question is whether you create an environment in which everybody who has a nondisclosure agreement with the president feels free to come forward and say what that person, he or she, knows and that would be I would think a problem for the president.