Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing Stephanie Clifford, the porn actress known as Stormy Daniels who is suing President Donald Trump, on Thursday sent letters to the Trump Organization and two banks asking them to preserve documents relevant to Clifford’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump.
Clifford is suing Trump and the firm set up by his longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay Clifford in exchange for her silence about her alleged relationship with Trump. She claims in the complaint that the nondisclosure agreement she signed barring her from talking about the alleged relationship is invalid because Trump did not sign it.
Avenatti wrote a letter to the Trump Organization noting links between the company and the payment Cohen made to Daniels. He noted that Cohen reportedly used his Trump Organization email when arranging the payment to Clifford, and that another lawyer who worked with the Trump Organization was involved in a February arbitration between Clifford and the company created by Cohen, Essential Consultants.
“In light of the unmistakable links between you and the defendants in this lawsuit, including, among other things, Mr. Cohen’s affiliation with your organization, and his use of his Trump Organization e-mail account and other office resources to effectuate a transaction flagged by a U.S. bank as potentially suspicious criminal activity, we intend on serving a subpoena for the production of records within your possession regarding this transaction when permitted to commence discovery in this action,” Avenatti wrote in the letter.
He asked for the Trump Organization to preserve a wide range of documents about Clifford, Cohen, Trump and interactions between them.
Avenatti asked First Republic Bank, the bank that reportedly flagged Cohen’s payment to Daniels as suspicious, to preserve records related to the transaction and any correspondence with the Trump organization or family. He also asked City National Bank, the bank that received the payment, to preserve records.
Read the letters:
