As Donald Trump tries to distance himself from adult film star Stormy Daniels, more connections continue to materialize. A Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday claims that a top lawyer with Trump’s company was directly involved in keeping Daniels quiet before the 2016 election.
According to the report, “Documents marked ‘HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL PROCEEDING’ for the first time tie President Donald Trump’s flagship holding company to the continuing effort to silence a former adult-film actress who says she had an affair with Mr. Trump.”
More from the report:
A Trump Organization lawyer, Jill A. Martin, is listed as counsel in an arbitration demand for Essential Consultants LLC, a Delaware company formed by Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and used to pay $130,000 to Stephanie Clifford in exchange for her silence, according to Feb. 22 arbitration documents filed in Orange County, Calif.
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The White House and Mr. Cohen repeatedly have sought to distance the president from the porn-star pact and payment. Mr. Cohen, who was employed by the Trump Organization when he brokered the deal with Ms. Clifford shortly before the 2016 national election, has maintained that he was acting on his own and has called it a “private transaction.†Soon after Mr. Trump’s electoral victory, Mr. Cohen left the company to establish his own legal practice.
Not surprisingly, Trump organization lawyer Jill Martin denied any wrongdoing and told the Wall Street Journal that “she facilitated the filing ‘in her individual capacity’ until a New York-based lawyer gained approval to practice in California.”
She added: “The company has had no involvement in the matter.”
The Stormy Daniels denials sound a lot like the White House’s Russia defense
The Wall Street Journal development that a top Trump lawyer was involved in silencing the porn star follows a recent report that the president’s personal lawyer used his Trump Organization email to set up the payment that kept her quiet – despite his claims that his dealings with Daniels were totally removed from Trump and his company.
The Trump White House continues to say that “none” of the allegations surrounding the president and Stormy Daniels are true, but the evidence seems to increasingly point in the opposite direction.
This same pattern – repeated denials before we discover that they are lying – has played out frequently in the Russia scandal, particularly when it comes to the many secret contacts made between Trump campaign officials and Russian actors.
It appears that the more the Trump administration denies wrongdoing, the more likely it is that they are guilty.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
