Cohen seeks to vacate hush-money deal with Stormy Daniels
Michael Cohen's shell company has reportedly moved to vacate a 2016 nondisclosure agreement with adult-film star Stormy Daniels, requesting that she return the $130,000 she received as part of the deal.
Cohen's lawyer Brent Blakely said Friday that California law requires Daniels to return the money that Cohen paid her in 2016 to stay quiet about her alleged affair with President Trump in 2006, CNN reports.
Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing Daniels in her defamation case against Cohen and Trump over their denials of the alleged affair, told CNN that the move was likely made in an attempt to protect Trump from being deposed.
"I haven't had a chance to digest it, I just saw it on my email literally right before I came on," Avenatti told CNN.
"What they're trying to do is they don't want me to get a chance to depose Michael Cohen and Donald Trump," he added. "This is a hail mary to try and avoid that, that's my first guess."
Avenatti added in a tweet Friday night that Cohen "is back to playing games and trying to protect Donald Trump."
"He is now pulling a legal stunt to try and 'fix it' so that we can’t depose Trump and present evidence to the American people about what happened. He is not a hero nor a patriot. He deserves what he gets," the attorney added.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/405676-michael-cohen-seeks-to-vacate-hush-agreement-with-stormy