Brent Blakely, Cohen's lawyer, sent an email to lawyer Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti denying that Cohen was responsible for sending a "thug" who Daniels said threatened her in 2011 to remain silent about the alleged affair she had with Trump five years earlier. Cohen, Blakely said, does not even believe Daniels's story about the threat.
"I hereby demand that you and your client cease and desist from making any further false and defamatory statements about my client," Blakely said in the letter, which was obtained by the New York Times and other media.
The letter further demands that Daniels and Avenatti "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."
Daniels told "60 Minutes" that, a few weeks after she agreed to tell the story of her tryst to In Touch magazine, she was in a parking lot with her infant daughter when a man walked up to her and told he to leave Trump alone. The man looked at her daughter and said "it would be a shame if something happened to her mom," then disappeared, Daniels said.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said fear persuaded her to accept a $130,000 payout for her silence from Cohen just 11 days before the 2016 presidential election.
Avenatti, speaking Monday on CNN, was dismissive of the letter, saying "we're just getting started" with their revelations. He also said that "to the best of my knowledge" police were not investigating the alleged threat.
"I think they should, I think it's a serious matter," Avenatti said. "I know we are."
In Touch did not publish their interview with Daniels until the Wall Street Journal broke the news in January of the payment to Daniels.
Blakely did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA Today.
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