Stormy Daniels is ready to put her money where her mouth is — if it means her mouth will then be allowed to tell her story about Donald Trump.
Porn star Daniels, who reportedly had an intimate relationship with Trump before he ascended to the U.S. presidency, is offering to repay the $130,000 she says she received to buy her silence, in exchange for being allowed to go public with her story.
In a letter to the president’s attorney Michael D. Cohen, Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti says that Daniels — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — will return the money in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement being rendered null and void, allowing Daniels to “speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the President and the attempts to silence her” and “use and publish any text messages, photos and/or videos relating to the President that she may have in her possession, all without fear of retribution and/or legal liability for damages.”
The settlement offer, which has a March 13 expiration date, also asks that Trump not take any action to block Daniels’ interview with Anderson Cooper for “60 Minutes” from airing publicly.
“This has always been about the truth and letting the American people decide who is shooting straight with them,” Avenatti told TheWrap in a statement Monday. “This offer proves that.”
Daniels sued Trump last week, contending that a “hush agreement” she’d entered into is invalid because Trump didn’t sign it, and that Cohen “aggressively sought to silence” her when she planned to make her story public in late 2016.
According to the suit, Daniels was presented with a “Hush Agreement” referring to Daniels as “Peggy Peterson” or “PP” and Trump as “David Dennison” or “DD.”
The suit says that, despite the lack of Trump’s signature, $130,000 was wired to Daniels.
Cohen has acknowledged the payment, but maintained that it was made from his personal funds, and that the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization were not parties to the transaction.
The suit contends that efforts to silence Daniels have continued unabated, and that in February of this year Cohen “surreptitiously initiated a bogus arbitration proceeding against Ms. Clifford in Los Angeles. Remarkably, he did so without even providing Ms. Clifford with notice of the proceeding and basic due process.”