White House press secretary Sarah Sanders faced a battery of questions Wednesday about Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who filed suit againstPresident Donald Trump this week alleging he hadn’t signed a nondisclosure agreement that wouldhave prevented her from discussing their alleged sexual affair.
Sanders attempted to stave off the questions by referring them to Trump’s outside lawyers. But she did reveal that – as far as she’s aware – Trump himself did not know his lawyer Michael Cohen made a payment to Daniels in October 2016 to ensure her silence.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Sanders said when pressed whether Trump knew about the payment. “Anything beyond what I’ve already given you, I would refer you to the President’s outside counsel.”
It was the latest development in the ongoing legal saga involving Cohen, Trump, and Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.
In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, a lawyer for Daniels alleges Trump failed to sign the nondisclosure agreement brokered by Cohen, thereby nullifying it.
The lawsuit also claims Cohen “surreptitiously initiated a bogus arbitration proceeding against Ms. Clifford in Los Angeles” without notifying her beforehand.
Sanders may have been referring to that arbitration on Wednesday when she insisted the matter with Trump and Daniels had been put to rest.
“I can share that the arbitration was won in the President’s favor,” Sanders said. “I would refer you to the President’s outside counsel on any details beyond that.”
She went on to say she didn’t know whether Trump had spoken to Cohen over the past week. And she insisted the President has denied having a sexual relationship with Daniels.
“The President has addressed these directly and made very well clear that none of these allegations are true,” Sanders said.