White House: President Trump denies affair with Stormy Daniels

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump denies having an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, and “doesn’t believe” she was ever threatened into keeping quiet about her claims, a White House spokesman said Monday, a day after Daniels was interviewed on CBS’ “60 Minutes.

“The president strongly, clearly and consistently has denied these underlying claims. The only one who has been inconsistent is the one making the claims,” White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah said when asked about Daniels’ interview at Monday’s press briefing.

In Sunday’s interview, Daniels — whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford — repeated her widely reported claims that she had a one-time sexual affair with Trump in 2006, shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to the couple’s son, Barron.

Daniels told interviewer Anderson Cooper that in 2011, after giving an interview to In Touch magazine about the alleged tryst, she was threatened by a man in a Las Vegas parking lot. She said the man told her “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.”

“Then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone,” Daniels said.

On Monday, Shah and Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pushed back on Daniels’ statements.

“The president doesn’t believe that any of the claims Ms. Daniels made in the interview are accurate,” Shah said, adding that “there’s nothing to corroborate her claim.”

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A letter sent by Cohen’s attorney Brent H. Blakely to Daniels’ attorney on Sunday night said “Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred.”

Cohen previously admitted to the New York Times that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket in exchange for the actress’ silence just days before the presidential election. Daniels has since filed a lawsuit seeking to have the nondisclosure agreement she signed with Cohen invalidated, and on Monday she filed a separate defamation of character lawsuit against Cohen.

Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show, stood by his client’s story and said more details would be forthcoming about the man who allegedly made the threat.

“We’re not going to play our hand right now, and the reason is because we have a case to win,” Avenatti said. “I’m not playing games; there will be more evidence.”