Stormy Daniels ‘physically threatened to stay silent’ about Trump affair, porn star’s lawyer claims

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says that his client was physically threatened to stay quiet about what she knows about President Donald Trump, and their alleged affair.

Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing Daniels, did not provide many details when making the allegations, including if the threat came from someone close to the President, or if a police report was filed after the incident.

“My client was physically threatened to stay silent about what she knew about Donald Trump,” Mr Avenatti said during the interview, on CNN.

When pressed as to whether Daniels has proof about the allegations, Mr Avenatti plugged an upcoming and highly anticipated interview Daniels has given to CBS’s “60 Minutes”.

“She’s going to be able to provide very specific details about what happened here,” Mr Avenatti said. “I am confident that the American people, after this interview, are going to come away and have little to no doubt that this woman is credible, she is telling the truth, and she knows what she is talking about.”

A request for further clarification on the nature of the physical threat from Mr Avenatti were not immediately returned to The Independent. Requests for comment were also not immediately returned by the Trump administration or the attorney representing Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer.

Mr Avenatti continued to say in the interview that there are six additional women who have come forward to allege that they had sexual relationships with Mr Trump, and that some of those women have nondisclosure agreements keeping them from speaking publicly, like his client. He said he could not vouch for those women and their stories, and indicated that he may not ultimately represent them.

The White House has denied allegations that Mr Trump had an affair with Daniels.

Daniels filed suit last week against the President over a nondisclosure agreement that was made just before the 2016 election with Mr Cohen. Mr Cohen reportedly paid Daniels $130,000 to stay silent about the affair, which she has said in previous interviews occurred in 2006. Mr Cohen has admitted that he paid Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — the sum out of his own pocket.

In her lawsuit, Daniels argues that the deal is void because Mr Trump did not sign the nondisclosure agreement. A lawyer for the Trump organisation signed the nondisclosure agreement.

During the interview with CNN, Mr Avenatti also suggested that Daniels was under duress when she signed the agreement in 2016, and indicated that they had chosen to challenge the document based on the lack of signature because proving duress is a difficult legal bar.

“As you know, proving duress is a very, very difficult thing under the law. As so, why prove duress when you can just point to the agreement and allege it wasn’t signed?’

The alleged affair between Daniels and Mr Trump occurred in 2006, less than four months after first lady Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s son, Barron.

Ms Trump has remained silent on the issue as stories surrounding the salacious affair have circulated online.