Michael Avenatti dropped another bombshell on MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday, revealing that he is currently vetting two more women that claim to have non-disclosure agreements with President Donald Trump. Avenatti represents adult film star Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels), who was paid $130,000 in 2016 for her silence over an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.
Recent financial disclosures show that Trump was lying while he denied knowing where the hush money to Clifford came from after being asked about it on Air Force One last month.
Yesterday's release of financial obligations showed Trump himself had reimbursed his attorney Michael Cohen for the Clifford payment. The Office of Government Ethics criticized Trump for failing to disclose these payments, which he has now done, albeit a year late. Last year, Trump paid Cohen between $100,000 and $250,000. The footnote of the document described the nature of the payments.
In the interest of transparency, while not required to be disclosed as ‘reportable liabilities’ on Part 8, in 2016 expenses were incurred by one of Donald J. Trump’s attorneys, Michael Cohen. Mr. Cohen sought reimbursement of those expenses and Mr. Trump fully reimbursed Mr. Cohen in 2017. The category of the value would be $100,001 – $250,000 and the interest rate would be zero.
Now Avenatti is claiming there are more women that were paid hush money and forced to sign NDAs, two of whom have reached out to him. Avenatti said that these women were paid even larger sums than the $130,000 Clifford received weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
There's at least 2 that I think are on solid ground... as the evidence rolls out in the coming months, disclosures are going to be made that my client was not alone as it relates to these payments.
Michael Cohen was not a 24-hour, stand-alone fixer for stormy daniels.
Avenatti answered affirmatively when host Mika Brzezinski asked if these were women that have "had sex" with Trump. "Yes," he said. "Are there any other women beyond those two that you're still vetting," Brzezinski asked? "Yes," Cohen replied.
This is all after Rudy Giuliani, the newest member of the Trump legal circus, said Trump had no idea where any of the money had originated, and that standard operating procedure involved monthly installments from Trump to Cohen for various legal expenses.
Avenatti said that Giuliani's performance as a Trump defender has been "sad."
I think it's pretty sad at this point... Rudy Giuliani used to be a heck of a lawyer... a great prosecutor...spent a lot of years in public service. But the guy's a caricature of himself at this point. He's an absolute TRAIN WRECK. He should get off television, he doesn't know the facts, clearly doesn't know the law, stumbles over his words, has no clear message... it's shocking to me that the president can't do better at this point than Rudy Giuliani.
Avenatti tweeted later Thursday morning that his client's bravery is the reason other women have decided to come forward with their stories.
Twitter laid into Trump and his illicit financial dealings, as well as his campaign's ties to Russia, which is the focus of the year-long probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
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