“Any other gag order imposed in the case would be manifestly one-sided and unjust, especially in light of the insults and attacks made against” Stormy Daniels, her attorney, Michael Avenatti, wrote in a filing Monday. | Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images. Any gag order should cover Trump, Stormy Daniels' lawyer says

Michael Avenatti, the attorney for the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, is fighting an effort to bring a court-ordered end to his near-continuous media appearances, but is also telling a federal judge that if a gag order is issued, it should cover another frequent tweeter and TV presence: President Donald Trump.

Earlier this month, a lawyer for Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, sought to shut down Avenatti’s public commentary about a suit Daniels filed trying to invalidate a “hush money” deal that Cohen arranged. That deal paid the adult film star $130,000 just prior to the 2016 presidential election in order to keep a damper on her story alleging a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.


Trump’s attorney didn’t join in the gag order request, but indicated that he would not oppose it. However, Avenatti said that if the judge went forward, any gag order would have to cover Trump and his primary legal mouthpiece, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“The order must go both ways by extending to all parties … and all counsel (whether of record in this matter or otherwise),” Avenatti wrote in a filing Monday. “Any other gag order imposed in the case would be manifestly one-sided and unjust, especially in light of the insults and attacks made against” Daniels, he added.

Avenatti’s response quoted a series of disparaging comments Giuliani made about Daniels in recent weeks.

“I’m sorry, I don’t respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman or a woman of substance or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman and as a person and isn’t going to sell her body for sexual exploitation,” Giuliani said at a Tel Aviv business conference earlier this month. “So, Stormy, you want to bring a case, let me cross-examine you. Because the business you’re in entitles you to no degree of giving your credibility any weight. And secondly, explain to me how she could be damaged. I mean, she has no reputation. If you’re going to sell your body for money, you just don’t have a reputation.”

Asked about Giuliani’s comments two days later, Trump said: “Not going to disagree with that.”

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Avenatti also noted that Giuliani included him in the attacks. “What do you think [Plaintiff is] about, and her lawyer, who’s an ambulance chaser? . . . Money, money, money, money, money. They sold out cheap, because the allegations aren’t true," Trump’s attorney said. In another appearance, Giuliani called Avenatti a “complete jerk” who should “turn in his law license.”

In a motion filed on June 14, Cohen’s attorney Brent Blakely argued that Avenatti’s “publicity tour” was threatening to turn the Los Angeles-based suit into a “media circus.” Blakely said an avalanche of inflammatory public comments by Avenatti — including by that date at least 121 TV appearances and 439 tweets — was tainting the court proceeding.

Blakely asked for the restraining order to be issued immediately, but U.S. District Court Judge James Otero said he didn’t see great urgency in the request. He set the hearing on the issue for July 27, the same day the parties are scheduled to meet to discuss the end of a 90-day stay that Otero imposed on the suit in April, after Cohen said he’d assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination because of an ongoing criminal investigation into his conduct.

Late last month, after a judge in New York warned Avenatti that he’d have to rein in his public comments if he was allowed to formally enter a case about records seized from Cohen, Avenatti withdrew his application and continued with his media campaign.

