--- title: Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says She Had an Affair with Trump description: Porn star Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said on the Today show that she did have an affair with President Donald Trump. canonical: https://time.com/5189218/stormy-daniels-porn-star-donald-trump-affair-confirmed/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-07T14:12:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T21:26:28.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says She Had Affair with Trump og:description: And Trump allegedly knew about a $130,000 payment og:url: https://time.com/5189218/stormy-daniels-porn-star-donald-trump-affair-confirmed/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03aef5ebe777b091/698929f67cdbacb62ed5c33a/stormy-daniels.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4949 og:image:height: 2784 og:image:alt: 2018 Adult Video News Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says She Had Affair with Trump twitter:description: And Trump allegedly knew about a $130,000 payment twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03aef5ebe777b091/698929f67cdbacb62ed5c33a/stormy-daniels.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Porn Star Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says She Had Affair With Donald Trump > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 9:26 PM UTCPublished: Mar 7, 2018 2:12 PM UTC  Stormy Daniels attends the 2018 Adult Video News Awards on January 27, 2018 in Las Vegas. Stormy Daniels attends the 2018 Adult Video News Awards on January 27, 2018 in Las Vegas. Gabe Ginsberg—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 9:26 PM UTCPublished: Mar 7, 2018 2:12 PM UTC The lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels said for the first time on Wednesday that she had a sexual relationship with Donald Trump and said there’s “no question” he knew about a $130,000 payoff to buy her silence. Michael Avenatti appeared on the _Today_ show after he [filed a lawsuit against the president](http://time.com/5188928/stormy-daniels-suing-donald-trump-over-nondisclosure/) on Daniels’ behalf that seeks to release her from the agreement she signed to keep quiet. “Let’s not bother to be delicate,” anchor Savannah Guthrie asked Avenatti. “Did she have a sexual relationship with the president?” “Yes,” Avenatti responded firmly — despite the fact that she originally denied having an alleged affair with the president. Trump has also denied having a sexual relationship with the actress. The White House and Trump continue to deny reports that he had an affair with Daniels in 2006 while he was married to Melania, now the first lady. > [](https://twitter.com/TODAYshow/status/971373354493140993) Just before Election Day, Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, routed $130,000 to Daniels, a payment Cohen [has said came from his own pocket](http://time.com/5157142/michael-cohen-lawyer-stormy-daniels-trump/). Avenatti disputed that claim on _Today._ “We think it’s highly questionable as to whether it came from his personal funds,” Avenatti said. “There’s no question the president knew about it at the time. The idea that an attorney would go off on his own, without his client’s knowledge, and engage in this type of negotiation and enter into this type of agreement, quite honestly, I think is ludicrous.” Avenatti also said Daniels is prepared to return the money if she wins her lawsuit against the president, adding that her first priority is telling the truth. “In light of the amount of misinformation that Mr. Cohen has put out there to the Wall Street _Journal_, the Washington _Post_ and others, I think it’s time for her to tell her story and for the public to decide who’s telling the truth,” Avenatti said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5189218/stormy-daniels-porn-star-donald-trump-affair-confirmed/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5189218/stormy-daniels-porn-star-donald-trump-affair-confirmed/"},"headline":"Porn Star Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says She Had Affair With Donald Trump","datePublished":"2018-03-07T14:12:17.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T21:26:28.000Z","description":"He also said Trump knew about a $130,000 payment","url":"https://time.com/5189218/stormy-daniels-porn-star-donald-trump-affair-confirmed/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03aef5ebe777b091/698929f67cdbacb62ed5c33a/stormy-daniels.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt03aef5ebe777b091/698929f67cdbacb62ed5c33a/stormy-daniels.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2018 Adult Video News Awards - Arrivals","caption":"2018 Adult Video News Awards - Arrivals","creditText":"Gabe Ginsberg—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5189218/stormy-daniels-porn-star-donald-trump-affair-confirmed/","name":"Porn Star Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says She Had Affair With Donald Trump"}}]}] ```