Donald Trump’s attorney reportedly arranged a $130,000 (£95,000) payment to a former porn star as part of a deal to prevent her from speaking about an alleged sexual encounter with Mr Trump.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), longtime Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen arranged the payout to Stephanie Clifford in October of 2016.
In a statement emailed to the Independent, an attorney for Mr Cohen denounced the story as a “Complete and utter lie”.
“This is recycled old fake news that has no validity whatsoever and everyone named, including Mr. Cohen vehemently denies this,” attorney David Schwartz said in an email. “It is fake news like this that has people questioning what is real and what is fake”.
Similarly, the White House blasted in a statement “old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election”.
An attorney whom the WSJ said had represented Ms Clifford declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege. The paper also published a comment purported to be from “Stormy Daniels”, a stage name used by Ms Clifford, denying sexual contact with Mr Trump and saying, “Rumours that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false”.
Numerous women have accused Mr Trump of unwanted sexual advances, allegations Mr Trump has consistently rejected as false. The White House has said its official position is that the accusers are liars.
Earlier this week, Mr Cohen filed defamation lawsuits against the opposition research firm Fusion GPS and the news outlet BuzzFeed over a dossier, published by BuzzFeed, that laid out Mr Trump’s potential ties to Russia and included salacious claims about Mr Trump’s sexual history.
A complaint alleges that the dossier falsely claimed Mr Cohen had “an inappropriate and possibly criminal relationship with the Russian government” and argues that the dossier’s publication caused him “significant financial and reputational damages”.
