Ex porn star Stormy Daniels was threatened with physical violence amid the effort to cover up her alleged affair with Donald Trump, her lawyer said on Friday morning.
At the end of an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents Daniels, was asked by cohost Mika Brzezinski if his client was “threatened in any way.”
“Yes,” Avenatti responded.
“Was she threatened physical harm?” Brzezinski asked in return.
“Yes,” Avenatti said, but declined to elaborate when Brzezinski prompted him. “I’m not going to answer that,” he said. “People will have to tune into 60 Minutes on March 25.”
(Daniels is set to appear on the CBS program then.)
Avenatti’s incendiary claim is only the latest in a saga of political pulp that has dominated headlines for most of this year. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen had paid her $130,000 in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election to keep silent about a series of sexual encounters she had with the then-Republican nominee a decade prior. The scandal concerns alleged effort to silence Daniels, and Daniels’ efforts to combat it in court.
The White House has repeatedly denied that the president had an affair with Daniels, although Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did acknowledge that the president was involved in an ongoing legal battle with Daniels.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Why Trump’s Message Worked on Latino Men
- What Trump’s Win Could Mean for Housing
- The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
- Sleep Doctors Share the 1 Tip That’s Changed Their Lives
- Column: Let’s Bring Back Romance
- What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid
- FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024
- Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision
Contact us at letters@time.com