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The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Thursday subpoenaed the Trump Organization over hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office picked up the probe just weeks after federal prosecutors announced they’d completed their investigation into the payments, made by former-Trump fixer Michael Cohen. “This is a political hit job,” Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for the organization, told The Post in an email.

Michael Avenatti's legal troubles escalated on Wednesday as federal prosecutors announced new criminal charges accusing the lawyer and prominent critic of U.S. President Donald Trump of stealing from porn star Stormy Daniels and extorting Nike Inc. Prosecutors accused Avenatti, 48, of stealing about $300,000 from Daniels, about half of which has not been repaid, after helping his former client secure a book contract. They also said he has been indicted on previously announced charges that he tried to blackmail Nike out of more than $20 million by threatening to expose what he called the athletic wear company's improper payments to...

In a statement posted Wednesday to Twitter, attorney Michael Avenatti denied he misappropriated funds meant for his client, adult film star Stormy Daniels, in her suit against President Donald Trump. “No monies relating to Ms. Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled,” Avenatti said. “She received millions of dollars’ worth of legal services and we spent huge sums in expenses. She directly paid only $100.00 for all that she received. I look forward to a jury hearing the evidence.” The denial came after ABC News reported prosecutors in the Southern District of New York plan to file new charges against Avenatti...

Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels who is facing a 36-count federal indictment, threw his support behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary. Mr. Avenatti on Thursday tweeted his “enthusiastic support” for Mr. Biden several hours after the former vice president formally announced his third bid for the presidency.

Stormy Daniels says she regularly fears that President Trum could win reelection. “I will be voting,” the adult-film star told an audience of almost entirely women on Tuesday at The Wing in Washington. “Some days I’m like, ‘There’s no way — this is gonna be amazing,'” Daniels told moderator Jane Mulkerrins, a freelance journalist, when asked during the Q&A session about the prospects of what might happen in the 2020 presidential election. “Other days I’m like, ‘This motherf---er’s going to win again,’” she said of Trump. Daniels, who was born Stephanie Clifford, sued Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen...

Attorney Michael Avenatti announced Tuesday that he was no longer representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, cutting ties with a client who had propelled him into the national limelight. In a statement posted to Twitter, Avenatti said he had informed Daniels "in writing" last month that his firm was terminating its representation of her "for various reasons that we cannot disclose publicly due to the attorney-client privilege." "This was not a decision we made lightly and it came only after lengthy discussion, thought and deliberation, as well as consultation with other professionals," Avenatti added. "We wish Stormy all the best."...

Television lawyer Michael Avenatti announced Tuesday that he will no longer represent pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. “On February 19, we informed Stormy Daniels in writing that we were terminating our legal representation of her for various reasons that we can disclose publicly due to attorney-client privilege,” Avenatti said in a statement shared to Twitter. “This was not a decision we made lightly and it came only after lengthy discussion, thought and deliberation, as well as consultation with other professionals,” he added. “We wish Stormy all the best.” In a separate statement, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The 2018 arrest of Stormy Daniels at a Columbus strip club was improper but not planned ahead of time or politically motivated, according to an internal police department review released Friday...(snip) ...Officers who went to Sirens strip club that night were targeting the club and not Daniels as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged illegal activity, according to the head of the city vice squad. Those alleged activities including human trafficking, underage drinking and drug dealing, the report said. But the investigation that night shifted to a narrower investigation of alleged illegal touching of customers by...

A lawsuit by adult film star Stormy Daniels against President Donald Trump over a non-disparagement agreement has been tossed out of federal court. US District Judge James Otero says the suit, which sought to invalidate the $130,000 agreement that kept Daniels from speaking publicly about her allegations of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election, should be sent back to California Superior Court. In his ruling, Otero says the suit "lacks subject matter jurisdiction." By remanding the case back to where it was first filed, Otero made it clear the case is over.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday formally dismissed porn actress Stormy Daniels' defamation claim against Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer. The civil allegation against Cohen was tossed "with prejudice," meaning that it's permanently done and Trump's one-time lawyer will "no longer face the threat of further litigation in this court or any other forum," according to the order by U.S. District Court Judge James Otero. Daniels' legal team had previously asked Otero, back in November, to dismiss a defamation claim against the president's lawyer. "We asked that the minor defamation claim be dismissed and it was,"...

Michael Avenatti will attend the congressional testimony by President Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen along with porn actress and alleged Trump mistress Stormy Daniels. Avenatti said on Twitter that Daniels was the original spark to Cohen’s legal troubles and the two will be in attendance when he appears before the House Oversight Committee next month. “I am pleased to announce that @StormyDaniels and I will attend the congressional hearing when Cohen testifies. Which is only appropriate seeing as it would have never happened but for @StormyDaniels,” Avenatti wrote.

Indicting Trump on campaign finance charges is a Democratic revenge fantasy. The most legally fraught part of the Russia probe now revolves around payments to an American porn star. As of yet, instead of a dastardly scheme to participate with the Russians in the hacking of Democratic emails to subvert the election, prosecutors have uncovered a dastardly scheme to try to keep from the voters — as if they weren’t aware — that Trump is a womanizer. The advantage of the story of the hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal is that they actually happened, and always passed...

the grounds for saying Trump broke a law are laughably flimsy. The argument is that since the hush money was paid to “influence” the election, it was a campaign expenditure. But by that logic, every dime Chris Christie spent to lose weight before his 2016 run — the diet books, the StairMaster, the bariatric surgery — was a campaign expenditure. If Christie bought a SlimFast shake with his personal money, was he a felon? Former Federal Election Commissioner Bradley Smith posited another hypothetical: “If a business owner ran for political office and decided to pay bonuses to his employees in...

FULL TITLE: Trump Paid Stormy Himself. Congress Paid Its Victims $17 Million out of Treasury. Who’re the Real Criminals? The one person who seemed to sum up the Democrats’ reaction to Michael Cohen’s guilty plea — and subsequent allegations against President Donald Trump — was Rep. Jerry Nadler. There’s long been speculation that the New York Democrat is considering impeachment hearings against Trump and anyone around him regardless of what the evidence might entail. A report from the day after the midterms had the powerful ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee ranting on a train about impeaching Supreme Court...

Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor who claims she had an affair with Donald Trump 12 years ago, has said her lawyer sued the president this year without her permission and has not been transparent about money raised on her behalf via an online fundraising appeal. In a statement given to the Daily Beast, Daniels said Michael Avenatti “has been a great advocate in many ways” but he “has not treated me with the respect and deference an attorney should show to a client”. She said she had not decided “what to do about legal representation moving forward”. Daniels has...

Stormy Daniels said Wednesday that her attorney Michael Avenatti filed her defamation lawsuit against President Trump without telling her. The porn star who claims to have had a brief affair with Mr. Trump also said she has seen none of the crowdfunding money that Mr. Avenatti has raised on her behalf and that he even started a second such campaign without her knowledge.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels said she'll fire her attorney Michael Avenatti if the domestic abuse allegations against him prove true. Avenatti was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse on Wednesday. He denies the allegations. Daniels also cautioned that "we should all reserve judgement" until the investigation is complete. Avenatti represents Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump and his former personal attorney Michael Cohen. Daniels says she had an affair with Trump in 2006....

The Donald Trump sex scandal has “completely destroyed” Stormy Daniels’ writing and directing career, the adult film actress told members of the Oxford Union debating society Thursday evening. The political “shitshow" of the last ten months left her with no capacity to write movies—her favorite part of working in porn—she said during an event entitled "Sex, Guns and Other Fluff: How Porn Can Set You Free." But Daniels—real name Stephanie Clifford—vowed to keep working in the adult film world. Although she was on "an unofficial break" from writing and directing, she said she certainly hadn't retired. "I'll probably never leave...

Cue the world’s smallest violin for Stormy Daniels, the stage name used by Stephanie Clifford when she took off her clothes and had sex with strangers to sate the urges of pornography addicts. According to a report in Newsweek by Katherine Hignett, Ms. Clifford, with no trace of irony and no heed for contradicting herself in the same speech, told a crowd primarily composed of students at the Oxford Union: The Donald Trump sex scandal has “completely destroyed” Stormy Daniels’ writing and directing career, the adult film actress told members of the Oxford Union debating society Thursday evening. The political...

In the wake of domestic violence charges filed against Michael Avenatti, his client, adult film star Stormy Daniels, cautioned Thursday against jumping to conclusions while also adding that she’ll find a new attorney if the accusations are found to be accurate. [snip] “These are serious and obviously very troubling allegations, but right now that is all they are: allegations,” Daniels told the outlet. “We should all reserve judgment until the investigation—an investigation Michael has said he welcomes—is complete, and that’s what I’m going to do." “But of course I do not condone violence against women and if these allegations prove...