Stormy Daniels Was “Physically Threatened,” Lawyer Says

Stephanie Clifford, aka the adult film star known as Stormy Daniels, has been physically threatened, according to her lawyer, Michael Avenatti.

Though he wouldn’t elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the verbal attack, Avenatti said that they would press ahead with lawsuits against President Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in an attempt to invalidate an NDA she signed in the closing days of the November 2016 election. Avenatti also declined to reveal names.

At the time, she also accepted a $130,000 “hush money” payment from Cohen in exchange for agreeing to stay silent about her relationship with President Trump, according to CBS.

Daniels has offered to return the money, her lawyer said.

Daniels is due in court on July 12 for the next hearing in her suit against Trump. According to her lawyer, the NDA Daniels signed isn’t valid because Trump never signed it. Daniels has managed to raise tens of thousands of dollars on a crowdfunding platform by claiming that Trump and his legal team were “trying to silence me.”

Last month, Cohen succeeded in getting a judge to impose a restraining order on Daniels after she lost an arbitration hearing, preventing her from sharing her experiences with the media.

However, despite this prior restraint, she has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel live, taped a “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper and authorized the publication of an interview with In Touch magazine that was conducted in 2011, before she signed the agreement, where she shared intimate details about her time with Trump.

According to Daniels, her relationship with Trump began in 2006 at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe and lasted for 18 months, until she broke it off when Trump failed to secure a spot for her on his TV show, “the Apprentice.”

The scandal has drawn the scrutiny of a Washington Watchdog, which has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the $130,000 payment to Daniels constituted a campaign expenditure that was not reported. Cohen has publicly testified that he made the payment out of his own funds.

The White House has denied the alleged 2006 affair.

Trump has been ramping up the legal battle, hiring a second lawyer to focus on Daniels’ lawsuit, and making sure she adheres to the NDA.

Daniels could face penalties up to $1 million if she’s found in violation of the contract.