Porn star Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti made a bold allegation about President Donald Trump‘s personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Wednesday when he accused Cohen of recording “inappropriate” conversations he had with Trump and other people.
Avenatti told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he believes Trump’s voice is also heard on the recorded discussions.
The FBI is currently reviewing materials seized in the April 9 raids of Cohen’s office, home and hotel room for records related to his $130,000 payment in hush money to Daniels before the 2016 election. Cohen has pleaded the Fifth Amendment in Daniels’ lawsuit, after the porn star alleged Trump never signed their non-disclosure agreement about their 2006 extramarital affair.
Cohen is also being investigated for bank fraud and other financial corruption charges, after it was revealed his law firm Essential Consultants, LLC received large payments from major companies like AT&T, Columbus Nova and Novartis in exchange for “insight” into the Trump administration.
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Avenatti — who has been heavily criticizing the president, Cohen and other members of Trump’s legal team like Rudy Giuliani — has now requested that any conversations that Cohen recorded be made public.
The FBI’s raids of Cohen’s belongings were also reportedly conducted to seek materials relating to other Trump-related affairs, like the infamous hot-mic Access Hollywood tape that surfaced in October 2016 in which then-candidate Trump was heard openly confessing to sexually assaulting women.
Avenatti responded to Tapper’s question about why Cohen’s recordings should be revealed to the public by saying: “I know for a fact that one or more of these conversations do describe things that are inappropriate.”
“People are allowed to have conversations,” he added. “But they’re not allowed to tape or record those conversations unless they have permission, unless you’re in a single party state. A number of these recordings were made illegally, they should be disclosed now to the American people.”
Avenatti did not say who he believed the other people in the recordings aside from Cohen and Trump were. Daniels’ lawyer also did not cite specific remarks from the recordings that showed the conversations were “inappropriate.”
Earlier this month, it was revealed the FBI kept a “pen register” or real-time log of Cohen’s phone calls over the last year, and that at least one of the calls was made to the White House.
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