Stormy Daniels: Porn star's lawyer says sketch to be released of man who threatened her over Trump affair

Michael Avenatti is offering a 'sizeable monetary reward' for information about the alleged encounter

The lawyer for adult actress Stormy Daniels, who claims she had sex with President Donald Trump, has said he may delay releasing a composite sketch of the person said to have threatened the porn star to stay quiet.

Michael Avenatti said early on Monday that he would release the sketch on Tuesday, along with details of a reward for help identifying the person. He said later in the day that the timeline might change, after news broke about federal raid of the offices of Mr Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. But Mr Avenatti said he still expected to release the information this week.

Federal agents raided Mr Cohen’s offices on Monday, seizing records on topics including a $130,000 (£92,000) payment made to Ms Daniels. The actress claims she had sex with Mr Trump once in 2006 and was paid by Mr Cohen days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Mr Avenatti said Monday that a “sizeable monetary reward” will be offered to anyone providing information identifying the person that Ms Daniels says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011. He said the sketch will help provide “additional details about what happened here”.

A hard-charging attorney who has relentlessly kept the case in the headlines, Mr Avenatti said “common sense dictates” that this person could only have been someone associated with Mr Trump or the Trump Organisation. He said the money would likely come from a crowd-sourced legal fund.

Ms Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, said in a recent interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that she was threatened to keep quiet by an unidentified man in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was with her infant daughter. Mr Avenatti tweeted a photo Sunday that he said showed Ms Daniels sitting with a forensic sketch artist to develop a sketch.

The “60 Minutes” interview prompted a lawyer for Trump attorney Michael Cohen to demand that Daniels publicly apologise to his client for suggesting Cohen was involved in her intimidation. Ms Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Mr Cohen of defamation.

Avenatti is also pushing to have Trump and Cohen answer questions under oath. He refiled a motion in federal court in Los Angeles Sunday, seeking a jury trial and to depose Trump and Cohen. If successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his conduct with women.

Mr Trump answered questions about Ms Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen and adding that he didn’t know where Cohen had obtained the money. The White House has consistently said Trump denies the affair and Cohen has held that he made the payment out of his own pocket, without involvement from the Trump Organisation or the Trump campaign.

Mr Cohen did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Sunday.

Mr Avenatti filed a similar motion over a week ago, which a judge deemed premature. He refiled after Mr Trump asked a federal judge to order private arbitration in the case. Mr Trump and Mr Cohen filed papers last week asking a judge to rule that the case must be heard by an arbitrator instead of a jury. Mr Avenatti opposes private arbitration.

In the filing, Mr Avenatti says he wants to question Trump and Cohen for “no more than two hours.” He says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the settlement agreement and if he “truly did not know about the $130,000 payment”. He also asks if Mr Trump was involved in any effort to “silence” Ms Daniels.

Associated Press