Essential Consultants, a company set up by President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, has offered to cancel the hush-money agreement earlier signed with porn actress Stormy Daniels and drop its planned $20 million lawsuit against her for allegedly violating the deal, Essential Consultants attorney Brent Blakely said in a letter sent to her lawyer.
Daniels claims she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006, which Trump denies, and was suing to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement.
Essential Consultants was established by Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty in federal court last month to campaign-finance violations, including the payment of hush money to Daniels and a former Playboy model to influence the election.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, dismissed the cancellation offer as "a stunt by Michael Cohen trying to fix it so that Donald Trump is not deposed."
Avenatti added that he would not settle the case without deposing Trump and that he believes the court should invalidate the agreement because it violated campaign finance laws.
Daniels is also suing Trump and Cohen for defamation.
The first reports of an alleged affair between Trump and Daniels were published in October 2011 by the blog The Dirty and the magazine Life & Style.
Around the same time, Daniels talked about the alleged affair with the gossip magazine In Touch Weekly, which chose not to publish the interview after Cohen threatened to sue the magazine.
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In January 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016, a month before the presidential election, to prevent her from discussing an affair she allegedly had with Trump in 2006.
Michael Cohen initially denied the existence of an affair on behalf of his client, Trump, but later acknowledged having paid Daniels $130,000, saying the payment was made with his own funds.