--- title: Stormy Daniels' Lawyer on Trump Lawsuit: 'Cover-Ups Matter' description: Porn star Stormy Daniels' lawyer says it's important she be allowed to tell her story about her alleged affair with Donald Trump. canonical: https://time.com/5193071/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-lawyer-cover-up/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-09T16:17:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:35:53.955Z article:section: Politics og:title: Stormy Daniels' Lawyer on Trump Lawsuit: 'Cover-Ups Matter' og:description: Michael Avenatti said his porn star client should be allowed to tell her story og:url: https://time.com/5193071/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-lawyer-cover-up/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35c3e6ca8c31a7fe/69892a237cdbac9d7cd5c388/donald-trump-stormy-daniels-lawsuit.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: donald-trump-stormy-daniels-lawsuit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stormy Daniels' Lawyer on Trump Lawsuit: 'Cover-Ups Matter' twitter:description: Michael Avenatti said his porn star client should be allowed to tell her story twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35c3e6ca8c31a7fe/69892a237cdbac9d7cd5c388/donald-trump-stormy-daniels-lawsuit.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says It's Important She Tell Her Story About Alleged Trump Affair Because 'Cover-Ups Matter'  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 9, 2018 4:17 PM UTC  Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images; Gabe Ginsberg—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 9, 2018 4:17 PM UTC The lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels says it’s important she be allowed to tell her story about her [alleged affair](http://time.com/5189218/stormy-daniels-porn-star-donald-trump-affair-confirmed/) with Donald Trump because “cover-ups matter.” “The cover-up is that you have attorney \[Michael\] Cohen claiming that Donald Trump never knew anything about this,” Michael Avenatti said Friday on CNN. “You have the White House claiming that Donald Trump never knew anything about this. That’s going to be shown to be patently false.” Daniels accepted $130,000 from Cohen in a confidentiality agreement struck right before the 2016 presidential election. She is now [arguing in a lawsuit](http://time.com/5191344/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-confidentiality-agreement-lawsuit-strength/) that because Trump didn’t personally sign the deal, the agreement should be voided so that she can tell her story. > [](https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/972091844308893697) Trump has “made very well clear that none of these allegations are true,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said earlier this week. But Sanders then added more fuel to the story, adding that “arbitration was won in the president’s favor” in the case. She may have been referring to a [temporary restraining order](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/08/whats-the-deal-with-this-arbitration-thing-between-trump-and-stormy-daniels/?utm%5Fterm=.ff3d4c35f637) issued last week that prevents Daniels from talking publicly about the alleged affair or [suing the President](http://time.com/5189549/stormy-daniels-lawsuit-can-you-sue-president-united-states/). Daniels’ attorney Avenatti teased on CNN that there’s more to come. “We have substantial evidence and facts that were not included in the complaint. We’re not going to lay all our cards out on the table,” he said. “I am confident that when those evidence, or when that evidence and those facts come to light, the American people are going to conclude that attorney Cohen and the White House have not shot straight with them on this issue.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5193071/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-lawyer-cover-up/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5193071/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-lawyer-cover-up/"},"headline":"Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says It's Important She Tell Her Story About Alleged Trump Affair Because 'Cover-Ups Matter'","datePublished":"2018-03-09T16:17:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:35:53.955Z","description":"Michael Avenatti said his porn star client should be allowed to tell her story","url":"https://time.com/5193071/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-lawyer-cover-up/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35c3e6ca8c31a7fe/69892a237cdbac9d7cd5c388/donald-trump-stormy-daniels-lawsuit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt35c3e6ca8c31a7fe/69892a237cdbac9d7cd5c388/donald-trump-stormy-daniels-lawsuit.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-stormy-daniels-lawsuit","caption":"President Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels","creditText":"Samuel Corum—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images; 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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5193071/stormy-daniels-donald-trump-lawyer-cover-up/","name":"Stormy Daniels' Lawyer Says It's Important She Tell Her Story About Alleged Trump Affair Because 'Cover-Ups Matter'"}}]}] ```