Stormy Daniels says Michael Avenatti sued Trump without her permission
Porn star also says her lawyer has not been transparent about money raised on her behalf via an online fundraising appeal
Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor who claims she had an affair with Donald Trump 12 years ago, has said her lawyer sued the president this year without her permission and has not been transparent about money raised on her behalf via an online fundraising appeal.
In a statement given to the Daily Beast, Daniels said Michael Avenatti “has been a great advocate in many ways” but he “has not treated me with the respect and deference an attorney should show to a client”. She said she had not decided “what to do about legal representation moving forward”.
Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Daniels has said that in 2011, a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot and threatened her after she had agreed to talk about her experience with Trump in an interview. She then released a sketch of the man.
In the lawsuit filed in April, Daniels alleged that a Trump tweet, which said she had fabricated the encounter, had defamed her, saying it made her out to be a liar. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal court in October, with the judge saying the tweet at the heart of the case was protected by free speech laws.
In her statement, Daniels said Avenatti filed the defamation lawsuit against Trump “against my wishes” and that she had been kept in the dark about online fundraisers “for my safety and legal defense”.
She continued: “He repeatedly refused to tell me how my legal defense fund was being spent. Now he has launched a new crowdfunding campaign using my face and name without my permission and attributing words to me that I never wrote or said.
“I’m deeply grateful to my supporters and they deserve to know their money is being spent responsibly. I don’t want to hurt Michael, but it’s time to set the record straight. The truth has always been my greatest ally.”
Avenatti responded in a statement to the Daily Beast, saying: “I am and have always been Stormy’s biggest champion.”
He claimed: “I have always been an open book with Stormy as to all aspects of her cases and she knows that … the vast majority of the money raised has gone toward her security expenses and similar other expenses. The most recent campaign was simply a refresh of the prior campaign, designed to help defray some of Stormy’s expenses.”
