Trump confirms Michael Cohen represented him during ‘crazy Stormy Daniels deal'

The adult film star has claimed she had an affair with the president and was paid to keep quiet

President Donald Trump has confirmed publicly that his personal attorney Michael Cohen did, in fact, represent him during what he called the "crazy Stormy Daniels deal".

Speaking on the Fox & Friends morning programme on Fox News, Mr Trump said his longtime lawyer represented him in "a tiny, tiny little fraction" of his legal work. "He would represent me and represent me on some things, he represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me. From what I see, he did absolutely nothing wrong," the president said.

Mr Cohen previously admitted to playing a role in the matter surrounding the adult film star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, allegedly having an affair with Mr Trump in 2006. He confirmed Ms Daniels' claim that he paid her nearly $130,000 of his own money just before the November 2016 election as part of a nondisclosure agreement. She has said the president never signed the agreement and is now suing for the right to speak about the supposed liaison. Mr Trump and Mr Cohen have denied allegations about the affair repeatedly.

Mr Trump appeared to put some distance between he and his longtime attorney. He had previously said that Mr Cohen was his attorney while answering questions on Air Force One and also said he did not know about the payment made to Ms Daniels: "you have to ask Michael," he said. This morning the president noted: "Michael is a businessman. He's got a business. He also practices law. I would say probably the big thing is his business, and they're looking at something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business".

The president called Mr Cohen a "good person," adding that "he's really a businessman, a fairly big business as I understand it, I don't know his business. But This doesn't have to do with me".

Michael Avenatti, lawyer for Ms Daniels, said on MSNBC that the president comments were like "another gift from the heavens in this case." In the lawsuit against Mr Trump in which Ms Daniels is claiming that the president never actually signed a nondisclosure agreement with her, permitting her to legally and publicly discuss her alleged relations with him, Mr Avenatti is also seeking to depose the president and his personal attorney.

"It's a hugely damaging admission by the president, because according to what he said on Air Force One a few weeks ago, he didn't know anything about the agreement, he didn't know anything about the payment, Michael Cohen went off and did this on a lark and Mr. Trump knew nothing about it. We now find out that that's bogus," Mr Avenatti claimed, planning on highlighting the comments for his case.

In the wake of Ms Daniels salacious interview on the 60 Minutes news programme regarding the alleged affair, Mr Cohen has had to deal with his home, office, and hotel being raided by the FBI. It was done after a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who has been investigating alleged collusion between Mr Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian officials.

Mr Cohen told CNN at the time: "I am unhappy to have my personal residence and office raided. But I will tell you that members of the FBI that conducted the search and seizure were all extremely professional, courteous and respectful. And I thanked them at the conclusion”.He also said that he "would be lying to you if I told that I am not” worried about the FBI investigation. “Do I need this in my life? No. Do I want to be involved in this? No,” he added.

He commented that the raid was “upsetting to say the least” and said after seeing what the investigation has done to his family, in hindsight he would have handled the payment to Ms Daniels differently. However, he has also tried to get a temporary restraining order on the documents seized during the raid, citing attorney-client privilege with Mr Trump, who was clearly infuriated by the raid. He has repeatedly called the special counsel investigation a “witch hunt” and tweeted in the wake of the document seizure that "Attorney--client privilege is dead!"

A federal court filing done today also cited the president's comments from today to support the argument that the majority of the material seized in the raid are not privileged communications between Mr Trump and Mr Cohen.

Media reports have suggested that agents confiscated documents regarding Mr Cohen's bank records, business records, and communications with the 2016 Trump campaign in addition to documents discussing Ms Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who is also claiming to have had an affair with the president. The warrant referenced a possible investigation into wire fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance. Mr Cohen has denied any wrongdoing.