Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says he’s got 3 more clients who were paid off by Trump

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti says he’s now representing three other women claiming Donald Trump paid them hush money before the 2016 election.

The high-profile lawyer announced Thursday night at a community forum in West Hollywood that he’s taken as clients another three women who claim to have had a relationship with Trump. Avenatti says that each of them was paid off to keep quiet, but he says he’s not at liberty right now to provide details about the cases.

Any such payments could be considered a violation of federal election law if it’s found they were linked to Trump’s campaign, with the intention of furthering his candidacy.

Speaking at a community forum in West Hollywood, where he has an office, Avenatti was deliberately vague about whatever it was that took place between Trump and his three clients, with whom he says he’s been working for the last several months.

But asked afterward to clarify whether he had evidence that his clients had had relationships with Trump, he said “Yes,” according to the Associated Press.

“Well, last time I checked, they weren’t just handing out checks to anyone, whether they had a relationship or not,” he told reporters.

https://twitter.com/ABC7Veronica/status/1022691927446118400

Meanwhile, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen is trying to get a gag order on Avenatti, who’s been outspoken about his clients, making more than 130 televised appearances to advocate on their behalf. Cohen’s lawyers have likened Avenatti to a “small-town carnival magician," according to ABC News, but Avenatti says the gag order is “baseless.”

Recordings made by Cohen and made public earlier this week appear to show that Trump had some knowledge of a payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep her quiet about an alleged affair between her and Trump in 2006. Trump has denied that any of the alleged affairs took place.

Avenatti says there are more tapes of conversations between Cohen and Trump, recorded by Cohen, and Avenatti says he knows “the substance of some of those tapes.” He’s weighed in on -- and accurately predicted -- many of the recent developments in the Trump and Cohen cases.