The personal lawyer of President Trump threatened to sue a tabloid magazine if it published an interview with the former adult film star who says she had an affair with Trump, according to a new report Friday.
Four former employees at In Touch magazine’s publisher told The Associated Press that Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime lawyer, said in an email to the publisher that Trump — then a TV star — would pursue legal charges if the magazine published its interview with Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
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In Touch published the full transcript of the 2011 interview Friday. In it, the actress detailed her alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Cohen used a private company and a fake name to pay Daniels $130,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement for her to keep quiet about the affair. The payment took place in October 2016, one month before the presidential election.
The magazine says Daniels passed a lie-detector test and that it corroborated her account with “one of her good friends” as well as her ex-husband, claiming both also passed polygraph tests.
Trump’s lawyer has denied Daniels’s claims of an affair with the president, saying Trump “vehemently denies” her claims. He also says Daniels now denies the affair happened. Cohen has not commented on the payment.