The president, as time goes on, continues to attempt to fortify his position of belligerent opposition to any and all investigations into his team. He continuously claims the wide-ranging Russia probe to be a “witch hunt,” and likewise, he has claimed scrutiny of his lawyer Michael Cohen to be without sufficient grounds.
Even still, developments in these cases are continuing to roll out that the president can’t extricate himself from. As a part of the government’s case against Cohen, they’ve been reported to be looking into a $130,000 hush money payment he delivered to adult film star Stormy Daniels covering an affair with Donald Trump. Now, Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti says that he has information about at least two more women possibly given hush money by Cohen meant to cover affairs with Trump.
As a part of a discussion about the future of his case against Cohen and Trump, Avenatti shared as follows, speaking to MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski of women he has mentioned in the past came to him claiming to have been paid off:
‘They are not fully vetted, but there are at least two I think are on solid ground. I think that as the evidence rolls out over the coming months disclosures are going to be made that my client was not alone as it relates to these payments and that Michael Cohen was not a 24 hour, 7 day a week fixer for the sole purpose of taking care of Stormy Daniels.’
When pressed further, Avenatti said that the payments to the two women he had in mind were larger than the $130,000 given to Daniels, but he declined to share any information about the size of the payments beyond that.
He did share, however, that he feels the payments may create “additional exposure” for Donald Trump, thanks to them being on questionable legal ground, just like the payment to Daniels is.
That “additional exposure” could constitute possible campaign finance law violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. Trump has claimed in the past to have had no part at all in the payment, but that defense fell through when newly added Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani revealed on Fox News that the president had actually reimbursed Cohen.
As Avenatti explained, the repayment “would not be a legal expenditure if it was a pass-through in order to reimburse him for the Stormy Daniels payment,” and yet, that’s the heading the Trump team seems to be aiming to put the reimbursement under. If the president and/or Cohen sought to intentionally lie on financial forms in an effort to conceal the hush money delivered to Daniels or anyone else, then that’s a big problem.
Check out video of Avenatti’s Thursday appearance on MSNBC below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8svv4tNGAZM
As Avenatti indicated during his Morning Joe appearance, the legal proceedings surrounding all of these concerns are continuing to unfold. As time goes on, however, it looks like the president is in a more and more precarious position that no number of supportive Fox & Friends broadcasts or furious public meltdowns will be able to save him from.
Featured Image via Screenshot from the Video
