A lawyer representing Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, sent a cease and desist letter to the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the porn actress who uses the name Stormy Daniels, on Sunday night after Clifford appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes” to discuss her alleged affair with Trump.
Cohen’s lawyer, Brent Blakely, charged that Clifford made “false and defamatory statements” during the “60 Minutes” interview, specifically when she claimed that she was threatened in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 not to discuss her relationship with Trump.
Blakely denied that Cohen has anything to do with the threat.
“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,” Blakely wrote. “You and your client’s false statements about Mr. Cohen accuse him of criminal conduct and constitute, among other claims, libel per se and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It would appear that your statements of alleged criminal conduct are being made to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute, which is also improper.”
Cohen’s lawyer fired back almost immediately after the Daniels interview with this letter saying allegation of goon threatening her was false >> pic.twitter.com/TWH2djrFPq
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 26, 2018
Blakely demanded that Daniels and Avenatti retract the statements made in the “60 Minutes” interview and apologize.
Asked about the letter on Monday morning, Clifford’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti told CNN, “Michael Cohen needs to stop hiding behind pieces of paper and come clean with the American public.”
In the “60 Minutes” interview, Clifford did not suggest that Cohen was behind the threat. However, after the interview, Avenatti said in a tweet that the threat “could only have come from one place.”
Asked about this Monday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Avenatti said that he does not have any evidence that the threat came from Cohen or Trump but said that he believes it came from a Trump associate.
“It had to have come from someone associated with Mr. Trump. There’s no other place for it to have come from,” Avenatti said.
I think that’s the single worst tweet by Haberman ever. She completely misses the point, and misrepresents the facts.
“Come clean with the American public.”
Avenatti sure has a way with words, doesn’t he?
Yer done Cohen . Spanking PP with a Trump Magazine?
ESAD, pal.
When your lawyer needs a lawyer you might have a problem.