President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen accused Stormy Daniels' attorney Wednesday of improperly acquiring Cohen's bank records and releasing false information about his finances in an attempt to discredit him.
Lawyers for Cohen asked a federal judge to order Michael Avenatti to explain how he got the records that were the subject of his seven-page report accusing Cohen of bank fraud. Avenatti released the report on Tuesday.
"We have no reason to believe that Mr. Avenatti is in lawful possession of these bank records," Cohen lawyers Stephen Ryan and Todd Harrison told Judge Kimba Wood in a letter.
They did not dispute the most striking disclosures in Avenatti's report: that the shell company Cohen used to pay off Daniels received about $500,000 last year from a business linked to a Russian billionaire who is close to President Vladimir Putin, and it also received large sums from companies with business before the Trump administration.
Avenatti "deliberately distorted information from the records which appear to be in his possession for the purpose of creating a toxic misinformation," the Cohen lawyers wrote.
They said the report stated incorrectly that Russian oligarch and Putin ally Viktor Vekselberg was involved in routing payments to Cohen's shell company through Columbus Nova, a New York investment company run by the billionaire's American cousin Andrew Intrater.
Vekselberg's conglomerate, Renova Group, is the company's biggest client, but he played no role in hiring Cohen for real estate and investment advice, according to Columbus Nova.
The Cohen team's letter also cited "blatantly incorrect statements" by Avenatti about Cohen's company receiving payments from Canada, Singapore, Hungary and a Bank of America account in Taiwan.
"Mr. Cohen has never had a Taiwanese bank account, has never been to Taiwan, and has never even had a Bank of America bank account," they said.
Avenatti called the letter "baseless, improper and sanctionable."
"Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the $500,000 from those with Russian ties," Avenatti said on Twitter.
The FBI and federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Cohen for potential fraud and other crimes involving, among other things, his shell company's $130,000 payment to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election. In return, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, agreed to keep quiet about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
The FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room last month and seized records and phones under court-approved search warrants. Trump and Cohen contend that some of them are confidential attorney-client communications that prosecutors have no right to see.
A special master appointed by Wood is reviewing the records to determine which should be withheld from the government.
Avenatti has sought to intervene in the case. In their letter to Wood, Cohen's lawyers requested that Avenatti keep out of the case.
"Mr. Avenatti's conduct in somehow obtaining random bank records and publishing them without proper concern for their accuracy is extremely troubling for the parties in this case, the court, and the public," they wrote.
