A lawyer for former adult film star Stormy Daniels is calling for the Treasury Department to release a “suspicious activity report” filed to the agency by Michael Cohen’s bank regarding a $130,000 payment to Daniels that Cohen facilitated before the 2016 election.
Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ lawyer, sent Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin a letter Monday asking the agency to release to the public information related to the payment, according to CNN.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had a sexual encounter with President Trump after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006. She signed a nondisclosure agreement with Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, just before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels said she received $130,000 in exchange for her silence.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month Cohen had an account with First National Bank and wired the $130,000 payment to Daniels from that account. First National Bank then flagged the transaction, and a suspicious activity report was filed with the Treasury Department.
“[W]e request that you publicly release the SAR, along with any and all underlying facts, transactions, and documents in your control upon which the SAR is based,” Avenatti said in his letter to Mnuchin, according to CNN. “And as secretary of the Treasury, it is well within your authority to release the requested SAR information to allow the public to learn critical information relating to the payment.”
Avenatti said the details surrounding the $130,000 payment to Daniels are not only crucial to her lawsuit against Trump, but of “great public concern.”
“Indeed, if the payment was made as innocently as Mr. Cohen has suggested, there should be no objection to the prompt release of the SAR,” he continued.
Daniels sued Trump, Cohen, and Essential Consultations, a company Cohen created to facilitate the payment to Daniels, last month and argued the confidentiality agreement she signed should be nullified because Trump didn’t sign it.
The White House has denied Trump had an affair with Daniels and said the president was unaware of any payment to Daniels.
Cohen said he used his own personal funds to facilitate the payment to Daniels, and said neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization were involved.
