Stormy Daniels requests Treasury info on ‘suspicious activity’ surrounding payment

Stormy Daniels’s lawyer is requesting that the Treasury Department hand over any information it has about the “suspicious activity report” (SAR) filed about President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 nondisclosure payment to her in 2016.

Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti made the request in a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, CNN reported on Tuesday.

Weeks before the presidential election, Cohen made the payment to Daniels, an adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels says the deal was regarding an affair she had with Trump a decade prior, which the White House denies.

Avenatti is requesting that the SAR be publicly released as well as “any and all underlying facts, transactions, and documents in your control upon which the SAR is based.”

“And as Secretary of the Treasury, it is well within your authority to release the requested SAR information to allow the public to learn critical information relating to the payment,” Avenatti continued.

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“Indeed, if the payment was made as innocently as Mr. Cohen has suggested, there should be no objection to the prompt release of the SAR,” he added.

Avenatti is asking that the information be released by April 11.

The Wall Street Journal first reported last month that Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels had been flagged as suspicious.

Daniels says she had a one-night stand with Trump less than a year after his marriage to now-first lady Melania Trump, sharing details of the alleged affair during a “60 Minutes” interview last month.

Cohen confirmed that he made the payment to Daniels, but has maintained that it was his own money. The Journal also reported that Cohen has complained that he wasn’t reimbursed for the payment. 

Daniels is suing to void the nondisclosure agreement, claiming that it isn’t valid because Trump didn’t sign the document.