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Tabloid reportedly delayed Stormy Daniels story for 6 years after litigation threat by Trump lawyer

Stormy Daniels. Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock.com

In Touch magazine reportedly delayed publishing an interview with porn star Stormy Daniels for six years after Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen threatened litigation.

Four former employees of In Touch’s publisher told the Associated Press that Cohen had threatened legal action in emails. The AP story did not reveal the sources’ names.

Daniels had told In Touch she had a sexual tryst with Trump in 2006. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Cohen allegedly paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump. The Wall Street Journal said Cohen used a Delaware company called Essential Consultants to make the payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. The article is based on anonymous sources.

Essential Consultants is incorporated in Delaware, where companies don’t have to publicly disclose the names of their managers.

Daniels denied she had a sexual or romantic affair with Trump and denied receiving hush money in a statement forwarded to the Wall Street Journal by Cohen.

Common Cause filed a complaint Monday with the Federal Election Commission claiming that the alleged payment to Daniels violated campaign reporting requirements, the Hill and TPM report. The group says the payment amounted to an unreported in-kind contribution to Trump’s campaign because it was designed to influence the election.

Common Cause sent a copy of the complaint to the U.S. Justice Department and asked for an investigation.