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Does Stormy Daniels have photos to back up her story of an affair with Donald Trump?
That’s one question she didn’t answer during her 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper on Sunday night.
The nondisclosure agreement she signed in October 2016 required her to turn over any “video images, still images, email messages, and text messages” of Trump, leading some to speculate about whether she in fact has such documentary evidence. Daniels’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has been hinting that she does, tweeting a photo of a CD on Thursday along with the message, “If ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ how many words is this worth?????”
On Sunday, however, she would not answer Cooper when he asked about the existence of photos or other evidence. “My attorney has recommended that I don’t discuss those things.”
Cooper also asked Avenatti about the existence of photos, noting that Avenatti might simply be bluffing.
“You should ask some of the other people in my career when they’ve bet on me bluffing,” Avenatti replied.
But he didn’t offer any more details about any possible evidence.
Earlier on Sunday, Avenatti tweeted that he and Daniels had material they wouldn’t be sharing on 60 Minutes:
Note: (a) not all of our evidence will be mentioned/displayed tonight – that would be foolish; (b) we are not sure what CBS will include but we know a lot from the full interview will have to be cut bc of the time allowed; (c) tonight is not the end – it’s the beginning. #basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 25, 2018
There’s been a degree of showmanship in Avenatti’s approach to the Daniels case and it’s possible he’s holding the American people — and the president — in suspense. It’s also possible that there are no photos.
Ultimately, though, that may not matter. Whether or not Daniels can prove she had sex with Trump, there’s no doubt that she was paid $130,000 not to talk about having sex with Trump. And what matters now is whether that was an illegal campaign contribution — and whether Daniels was bullied or threatened into silence by Trump’s associates, as she claimed on Sunday.
As Avenatti told Cooper, “This is about the cover-up.”