White house declines Stormy Daniels’ claims


FE Team | Published: March 27, 2018 12:04:00 | Updated: March 29, 2018 11:01:05


Photo- Reuters

The White House has denied allegations that Donald Trump had an affair with an adult-film actress.

Stormy Daniels gave details about the alleged 2006 affair during an interview on CBS News’ 60 Minutes programme.

“The president doesn’t believe that any of the claims that Daniels made last night in her interview were accurate,” said spokesman Raj Shah.

President Trump’s lawyers are seeking $20m (£14m) in damages from her, saying she broke a non-disclosure deal, according to a BBC report.

Daniels, 39, told CBS in an interview aired on Sunday night that she had accepted $130,000 in ‘hush money’ from Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, just before the 2016 election.

Daniels is suing the president, alleging that the non-disclosure she signed is invalid because Trump did not sign it.

On Monday, she amended her lawsuit to include Cohen as a defendant, claiming he defamed her with a statement he made about the payment.

The amended lawsuit also claims the payment violated campaign-finance laws.

She said she originally accepted the ‘hush money’ and signed the deal because she was concerned for the safety of her family.

Daniels claimed in the Sunday night interview she was threatened by a stranger in a car park in 2011 to ‘leave Trump alone’.

But Shah said the president does not believe Daniels’ claim to be true, adding that Cohen would need to be asked about the specifics of their monetary arrangement.

Cohen’s lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to Daniels following the interview, dismissing her claims about being threatened by a stranger.

The letter also said Daniels needed to immediately “retract and apologise to Cohen through the national media for your defamatory statements on ‘60 Minutes,’ and make clear that you have no facts or evidence whatsoever to support your allegations that my client had anything whatsoever to do with this alleged thug”.

Trump - who has no public events scheduled for Monday - did not comment himself about Daniels’ story.

Daniels is one of three women who have taken legal action that could damage Trump.

Melania Trump - who has not publicly responded to the claims made in Daniels’ interview - did not return to the White House with her husband on Sunday from Florida.

The US first lady is said to be staying at Mar-a-Lago estate for spring holiday.

Daniels has meanwhile been capitalising on the purported scandal.

The 60 minutes interview- with 22.1m viewers- was its highest viewed episode in 10 years, according to CBS.

She has reportedly extended her nationwide tour of strip clubs, until November.

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