Michael Avenatti, attorney to Stormy Daniels, is making the television rounds to offer new insight into the adult film star’s quest to be free of the “hush agreement” she signed to stay silent about her affair with Donald Trump. Avenatti also offered troubling new details in advance of Daniels’ upcoming interview on 60 Minutes. Taking questions from the Morning Joe hosts on MSNBC, Avenatti made the startling claim that Stormy Daniels was threatened.
Whoa. Did Donald Trump himself threaten Stormy Daniels? It wouldn’t be the first time such a claim had been made. In a 2016 lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, plaintiff “Jane Doe” claimed that Epstein and Trump raped her when she was 13 years old and then Donald Trump threatened to kill her.
Here is the claim from that lawsuit (Page 6, Paragraph 23):
Both Defendants let Plaintiff know that each was a very wealthy, powerful man and indicated that they had the power, ability and means to carry out their threats. Indeed, Defendant Trump stated that Plaintiff shouldn’t ever say anything if
she didn’t want to disappear like Maria, a 12-year-old female that was forced to be involved in the third incident with Defendant Trump and that Plaintiff had not seen since that third incident, and that he was capable of having her whole family killed. Exhs. A and B
That lawsuit was eventually dropped. The defendant claimed her life had been threatened.
A woman who accused Donald Trump of raping her two decades ago when she was a 13-year-old aspiring teen model has again dropped a federal lawsuit over the alleged assaults.
The accuser, identified in the lawsuit by the pseudonym "Jane Doe," was expected to appear at a news conference in Los Angeles Wednesday, but that appearance was abruptly canceled.
The lawyer who organized the event, Lisa Bloom, said Trump's accuser had received threats and was too frightened to show up.
Michael Avenatti also told the Morning Joe crew that six more women have come forward with similar claims and that at least two of them have similar nondisclosure agreements with Donald Trump, Michael Cohen or the cover-up LLC used to pay Stormy Daniels.
JOHN HEILEMANN: So two different lines of inquiry. The first is related to the new women who have come forward and approached you. You said there were six who came forward. Obviously interesting there the sense that we're interested in the president's behavior before he became president but in what way does that -- how does that play into the case that you're trying to play out here?
MICHAEL AVENATTI: Well, I don't know that it does and I want to be really clear about something. We've been approached by six separate women who tell six stories. We have not vetted those stories, we are in the very preliminary stages of determining the veracity of those stories. We haven't determined whether we're going to represent them. We are at the early stages and I want to preach caution which I have done for weeks now in connection with this case because it's very, very important that we don't get over the tips of our skis in connection with this. This needs to be a measured, thoughtful approach. That's what we're doing.
JOHN HEILEMANN: Taking that point on board and asking this in a cautious way, they're similar in the respects that you have six women -- unvetted, you don't know if they're telling the truth -- but have said, a, they had some kind of sexual relationship with the current president of the United States?
MICHAEL AVENATTI: Yes.
JOHN HEILEMANN: And B that they have confidentiality agreements that keep them from speaking?
MICHAEL AVENATTI: At least two of them. But people can claim all kinds of things and when there is a situation like this, there is a tendency by people to come forward and make up a lot of nonsense and I don't know whether these women are telling the truth or not because we haven't vetted them yet so we're not going to take our reputation behind them. What I will say is this -- there is no doubt, zero doubt, that my client Miss Clifford is telling the truth, that she's honest and credible otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here right now.
This story does not appear to be going away. The 60 Minutes interview with Daniels is scheduled for March 25 and it would appear the interest in the story will only gain steam. If Donald Trump or an associate physically threatened and coerced Stormy Daniels (and/or others), the American people deserve to know. Buckle up, America. Turbulent times ahead.
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