Anderson Cooper Conducts Softball Interview of Stormy Daniels’ Lawyer Ahead of Big 60 Minutes Exclusive
Anderson Cooper sat down with Stormy Daniels’ lawyer ahead of his exclusive interview with the porn star, which is scheduled to air this Sunday on 60 Minutes.
The interview began with the lawyer, Michael Avenatti, debunking the notion that President Donald Trump‘s attorney Michael Cohen negotiated with Daniels on the non-disclosure agreement independently from the Trump Organization by pointing to the involvement of the organization’s general counsel Jill Martin.
“I do not understand why Michael Cohen, if he was acting in his own capacity as a private individual- not as a member of the Trump Organization… why he would reach out to the general counsel of the Trump Organization to get involved in this arbitration,” Cooper said — in agreement with Avenatti. “I mean, there’s plenty of lawyers in L.A. he could have reached out to.”
Cooper asked the same non-question to CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who responded by saying in part that Cohen was “incredibly cheap” to look for counsel elsewhere and that this was an effort by the Trump enterprise “to keep Stormy Daniels quiet.” Avenatti added that the document that Martin signed was dated after Cohen’s initial statement made that stated that the Trump Organization had nothing to do with the NDA.
“But Michael Cohen, as far as I know, is a trained attorney. So I mean, why would a trained attorney make this statement in early February or mid February 13th or 14th, saying ‘Trump Organization, nothing to do with it,’ and then after making that statement, and it’s not like it was a small statement, that was a big deal statement, it got a lot of coverage, why would any licensed attorney then reach out to somebody in the Trump Organization, even if it was for a minimal role?” Cooper asked.
“For all intents and purposes… every piece of actual evidence demonstrates that EC, LLC equals the Trump Organization/Donald Trump,” Avenatti told Cooper. “That’s what the evidence shows. That’s what the emails shows. That’s what other documents show. It’s that simple.”
In light of all these softballs and the failure to push back on Avenatti’s comments, it’s worth questioning whether CNN should have allowed Cooper to conduct this interview in the first place. After all, he does stand to directly benefit if Stormy Daniels manages to shake free of her NDA — as he’d be front and center for a blockbuster 60 Minutes report. Cooper is not a disinterested party in the Stormy Daniels legal drama. At the very least, he should have disclosed his journalistic score at some point during the segment — and allowed viewers to judge for themselves whether his questioning of Avenatti was impacted as a result.
In any event, if this interview was a forecast for his upcoming Stormy Daniels exclusive, expect it to be a breeze.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
