The Latest on adult film star Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump (all times local):
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on adult film star Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump (all times local):
2:20 p.m.
CBS says its « 60 Minutes » interview with Stormy Daniels drew the news magazine’s biggest audience in a decade.
The Nielsen company estimates that slightly more than 22 million viewers tuned in Sunday to hear the adult film star talk about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump and the aftermath.
If that figure holds, it would mean more people watched the Daniels interview than watched the 2016 « 60 Minutes » interview with President-elect Trump and his family on Nov. 13,2016.
CBS says that interview drew 20 million viewers.
In the « 60 Minutes » interview, Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said that she had one encounter of consensual sex with the future president. Daniels also said she was threatened by an unidentified man to keep quiet about it.
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The White House says President Donald Trump is continuing to deny allegations by adult film star Stormy Daniels that she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
White House spokesman Raj Shah says Trump has repeatedly denied the claims and says he’s the only one who’s been consistent in his story.
He says that the White House did not violate federal campaign finance law in its dealings with Daniels. And he’s referring questions about Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and the campaign’s actions to them.
Daniels said in a « 60 Minutes » interview that aired Sunday that she was threatened by an unidentified man in Las Vegas to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump.
Shah says Trump doesn’t believe she was threatened.
He says, « There’s nothing to corroborate her claim. »
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10:15 a.m.
An attorney for Trump lawyer Michael Cohen says his client had nothing to do with an alleged threat made against adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Lawyer Brent Blakely said in a letter late Sunday that Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti made « false and defamatory statements » in an episode of « 60 Minutes » that aired Sunday night.
Daniels said in the interview she’d been threatened by an unidentified man to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump.
Blakely says 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. »
He’s accusing the pair of libel and demanding they « cease and desist from making » false and defamatory statements » and apologize to Cohen publicly.
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8:15 a.m.
A lawyer for Michael Cohen, a Trump attorney who has said he paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement, says Daniels lied in her « 60 Minutes » interview about having an affair with Donald Trump in 2006.
« The lying is all over that piece, » says David Schwarz, Cohen’s lawyer, on ABC « Good Morning America. »
Trump has denied an affair. Daniels received the payment days before the 2016 presidential election for her silence and has sought to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement.
Schwartz also says the suggestion by Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, that someone associated with Trump or his organization was behind a threatening incident in 2011 is « speculation » and « guesswork. »
Daniels said in the « 60 Minutes » interview that in 2011 man approached her in a parking lot as she was going to a fitness class with her daughter. She says the man told her: « Leave Trump alone. Forget the story. »
Schwartz disparaged Daniels’ claim, saying she didn’t go to the police over the incident, but simply proceeded « to her Pilates class. »
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8 a.m.
The lawyer representing adult film star Stormy Daniels is declining to specify what evidence he is still holding back in support of allegations Daniels had an affair with Donald Trump and was threatened if she didn’t keep silent.
Michael Avenatti tells NBC on Monday that his client is « not going to get into the details of everything we have at this time. » But he insists « there will be more evidence. »
He made the rounds of television talk shows the morning after Daniels’ « 60 Minutes » interview on CBS. On Monday, Avenatti was asked about his tweet last week of a photo of a CD or DVD that he told CBS was a « warning shot. » But he declined to say more about the image, which is unlabeled and indistinct.
Daniels said on « 60 Minutes » that she was threatened by an unidentified man to keep silent about her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006.
Avenatti says he is still working to verify the man’s identity. He says he has no direct evidence tying the threat to Trump or his lawyer « other than common sense. »
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12:34 a.m.
Adult film star Stormy Daniels says she was threatened to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006, telling her story in a highly anticipated interview with CBS’ « 60 Minutes. »
Daniels said she was threatened by an unidentified man in Las Vegas to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump, an incident that she said happened while she was with her young daughter. She said in the interview that aired Sunday that she had one encounter of consensual sex with the future president.
The adult film actress, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, provided little new evidence of her alleged 2006 affair with Trump but said she faced intimidation tactics aimed at ensuring her silence in 2011.
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