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White House Pushes Back Against Stormy Daniels Claim

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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - The White House has pushed back against porn star Stormy Daniels' allegations of an affair with President Donald Trump.

So far, Trump himself has remained uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter as questions arise about hush money paid to Daniels.

An attorney representing Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said there was no legal issue with a $130 thousand dollar payment Cohen made to Daniels.

"Mr. Cohen paid the $130,000, but the reason is to protect business, protect reputation, and to protect family, and you cannot speculate that it was to elect somebody President of the United States," said attorney David Schwartz.

Cohen maintains the money he paid to Daniels just before the Presidential election was never paid back by the Trump campaign or by Trump himself so it did not constitute a violation of campaign finance laws.

"It was not a campaign expense, this was a settlement," said Schwartz.

Daniels sat down for a widely watched interview on "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday. She claims she had consensual sex with Mr. Trump in 2006.

Daniels and her lawyer described how the settlement was arranged and the non-disclosure agreement that came with it to stay quiet about the alleged relationship. Some legal experts say the timing of the payment could present a problem.

"Why would they do this agreement at that time? The obvious answer is to affect the election results," said CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman.

The White House has dismissed Daniels' story.

"The President doesn't believe that any of the claims that Mrs. Daniels made last night in the interview are accurate," said deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah on Monday.

While Trump did not mention the Daniels' "60 Minutes" interview by name Twitter, he did tweet this on Sunday.

Cohen said Daniels and her attorney face millions of dollars in damages for violating the non-disclosure agreement. The White House would not say if Trump watched the "60 Minutes" interview.

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