Three more women were paid Donald Trump hush money for affairs, says Stormy Daniels’ lawyer

Three more women claim to have been paid hush money to conceal affairs with US President Donald Trump, Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, claimed on Friday.

“Three additional women,” Avenatti tweeted. “All paid hush money through various means. “Time for Michael Cohen and Donald Trump to come 100 per cent clean with the American people,” he said in a reference to Trump’s former personal lawyer.

“All the documents, all the tapes. NOW,” Avenatti said. “No more lies or lip service.”

Avenatti, speaking to reporters Thursday night in Los Angeles, said the three women, who contacted him months ago, “were paid hush money prior to the 2016 election”.

He said he was “not at liberty to share” the evidence because he didn’t have permission from his clients to disclose specifics.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is suing Trump to invalidate a non-disclosure agreement that prevents her from discussing their alleged intimate relationship that began in 2006.

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Cohen, Trump’s attorney, paid Daniels US$130,000 just days before the presidential election in exchange for her silence.

A recording surfaced this week of Trump and Cohen discussing how to buy the rights to the story of another woman, a Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

Cohen, who no longer works for Trump, is under investigation in New York for his business dealings and reportedly whether hush payments violated campaign finance laws.

The tape involves Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had a months-long fling with Trump after they met in 2006.

On the tape, Trump and Cohen talk about buying the rights to McDougal’s story, which she had sold to the National Enquirer for US$150,000. The tabloid never published the story.

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Also on Friday, US District Judge S. James Otero said he was likely to dismiss a request by Cohen to place a gag order on Avanetti that would stop him from discussing Daniels’ lawsuit in public.

His lawyer, Brent Blakely, argued that Avenatti’s frequent interviews and near-daily tweets about Trump and Cohen could taint future jurors.

“Like a small-town carnival magician who attempts to confuse the audience with smoke and mirrors, Avenatti attempts to somehow justify his conduct by pulling the First Amendment out of his tiny bag of tricks while at the same time pointing his finger at others,” Blakely wrote in requesting the order.

Otero said the US Constitution is “neither a trick nor an illusion” and told Blakely that his request was “serious business.”

The judge said he had some concerns about statements that Avenatti has made about Cohen, but said the bar for a gag order was high and it didn’t seem as though Cohen had met that burden. He did not immediately issue a decision on issuing the order.