The adult film actress Stormy Daniels said she forgives Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer who arranged the infamous hush deal to buy her silence about an alleged affair with the president.
Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, had a chance encounter with Cohen, who flipped on Trump in the Mueller investigation, at an airport. She was surprised when he said "hi."
"Michael Cohen just said hi to me in the airport. I meant to take a flight to NY but think I just landed on Mars," Daniels tweeted on Sunday.
She gave more detail about the incident to CNN's Don Lemon—and offered a much mellower view on Cohen than she and her lawyer Michael Avenatti have had in the past.
Daniels' lawyer Avenatti has called Cohen a "phony," a "legal idiot," and a "criminal who deserves the max penalty" and who "conspired to help rig the election."
"We just passed each other in La Guardia the other night. I saw him and was like, 'Oh my gosh, that's Michael Cohen,'" Daniels said.
"He passed within like three feet of me and I was with my bodyguards and my tour manager and stuff. And we were like, 'Hi.' He turned around and goes, 'Hi guys!' and smiled at us.
"And I was—it was very strange. He looked happy and healthy, though. He looked like he had a weight off his shoulders."
Lemon asked Daniels if she harbored any ill-feelings towards Cohen.
"I did. Like, for a long time," Daniels said. "He was the one who brokered this ridiculous deal, which isn't my issue, because I wanted it, I didn't want this story to come out.
"My issue with him is he is the one that went on TV and promoted a book deal and this and that, and started wanting more and more and more from me.
"So I definitely think I had a lot of ill-will towards him but in the end, you know what, he kinda did the right thing. He admitted that I wasn't lying and that Trump had ordered him to do this.
"In a way, I guess I forgive him."
Cohen sorted the $130,000 payment to Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. It was to buy the rights to her story about having sex with Trump at a celebrity golf event in 2006, just months after his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron. Trump denied the affair.
The president denied any knowledge of the payment before its reports of its existence emerged in the media in early 2018.
However, the Mueller investigation caught up with Cohen over his personal business dealings and charged him with multiple counts of fraud.
Under a plea deal, Cohen flipped on his former boss Trump by implicating him in the Daniels payment.
Cohen suggested Trump directed him to pay off Daniels for the benefit of the presidential campaign, contradicting both his and the president's past statements on the issue.
This would make the payment an undeclared campaign contribution, breaking the rules. It also suggests Trump lied about his knowledge of and involvement with the payment.
Daniels recently released a tell-all book about her life and the Trump affair called Full Disclosure.
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Shane Croucher is a Senior Editor based in London, UK. He oversees the My Turn team. He has previously overseen ... Read more
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