Avenatti sat down for an interview with Savannah Guthrie of the "Today" show hours after he'd filed a lawsuit against Trump on Daniels' behalf that seeks to release Stormy from the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) she signed in exchange for $130,000.
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 7, 2018
Explaining the reasoning behind the lawsuit, Avenatti indicated that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, "believes that it's important that the public learn the truth about what happened."
"Let's not bother to be delicate," Guthrie told Avenatti. "Did [Stormy Daniels] have a sexual relationship with the president?"
Avenatti's response was a quick "yes," before the conversation turned to Michael Cohen's admission that he facilitated a $130,000 payment to Daniels from his personal funds.
"We think it's highly questionable as to whether it came from his personal funds," Avenatti said. "There's no question the president knew about it at the time."
"The idea that an attorney would go off on his own, without his client's knowledge, and engage in this type of negotiation and enter into this type of agreement, quite honestly, I think is ludicrous," he added.
Avenatti later informed Guthrie that his client would be prepared to return the six-figure sum if she were to win her lawsuit against 45, since her main concern is "to tell her story."
"In light of the amount of misinformation that Mr. Cohen has put out there to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and others, I think it's time for her to tell her story and for the public to decide who's telling the truth," Avenatti said.
Both the White House and Trump have repeatedly denied any allegations that suggest the affair, which reportedly took place months after his youngest son was born, ever occurred. Before Cohen admitted to playing a role in the NDA, he too, shut down any talk of the affair by calling it an "outlandish allegation."
On Wednesday, during the White House briefing, US Press Secretary Sarah Sanders indicated that she had asked Trump about the ongoing Stormy ordeal and that he had "denied all of these allegations."
"I've had conversation with the president about this and as I outlined earlier, this case had already been won in arbitration," Sanders told reporters. "There was no knowledge of any payments from the president and he's denied all of the allegations."
