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Trump's lawyer demands Stormy Daniels stop talking about alleged parking lot “threat”

Michael Cohen, via his lawyer, sent Stormy Daniels a cease-and-desist letter shortly after her "60 Minutes" interview

A lawyer working for President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen sent Stormy Daniels a cease-and-desist letter late Sunday night, urging the porn star to take back what the lawyer says are “false and defamatory” claims she made in a "60 Minutes" interview that same evening.

In the letter, which was obtained by CNN, Cohen’s lawyer Brent Blakely says Cohen had nothing to do with a man who Daniels said approached her and her then-infant daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011, shortly after Daniels told InTouch magazine she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Daniels said the man told her to keep quiet about the affair. InTouch didn't run the story until a few months ago.

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“A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,’” Daniels told interviewer Anderson Cooper. “And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”

“You took it as a direct threat?” Cooper asked. “Absolutely,” Daniels replied. “I was rattled. I remember going into the workout class. And my hands are shaking so much, I was afraid I was gonna drop her.

Read: Stormy Daniels said a man threatened her kid in "60 Minutes" interview

In the letter, which is addressed to Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti, Blakely says Cohen doesn’t believe this incident ever happened.

“I hereby demand that you and your client cease and desist from making any further false
and defamatory statements about my client, that you immediately retract and apologize to Mr. Cohen through the national media for your defamatory statements on '60 Minutes,' and make clear that you have no facts or evidence whatsoever to support your allegations that my client had anything whatsoever to do with this alleged thug,” Blakely wrote.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, didn’t specifically say that she thinks Cohen was behind the alleged Las Vegas threat. She does believe, however, that Cohen was behind later efforts to pressure her to lie about her alleged affair with Trump, after the reports surfaced in January that Cohen had paid Daniels $130,000 in 2016 as part of a non-disclosure agreement.

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“They made it sound like I had no choice,” Daniels said, adding, “As a matter of fact, the exact sentence used was, 'They can make your life hell in many different ways.'"

“'They' being…?” Cooper asked.

“I’m not exactly sure who they were,” Daniels said. “I believe it to be Michael Cohen.”

While Cohen has confirmed he had made the payment out of his own pocket, he denies ever threatening Daniels. Both he and Trump’s representatives also say Trump never slept with Daniels.

The White House has yet to officially comment on the "60 Minutes" interview, though a spokesperson for Melania Trump dismissed the story as “speculation and salacious gossip” in a tweet late Sunday night.

Melania and Donald Trump reportedly spent Sunday evening apart. While the president is back in Washington, Melania remains at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Cover image: Stephanie Clifford, also known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, during her interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday.