American porn star Stormy Daniels has said that her lawyer Michael Avenatti had filed a defamation suit against US President Donald Trump against her wishes and sometimes spoke on her behalf without her consent.
In a statement to The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Daniels, who's given name is Stephanie Clifford, alleged that Avenatti had also repeatedly ignored her requests for accounting information about a legal defence and safety fund that has drawn support from donors, reports The New York Times.
In the meantime, she said, Avenatti launched another crowd-funding campaign without her knowledge, attributing words to her that she never wrote or said.
"I haven't decided yet what to do about legal representation moving forward," Clifford said in her statement.
"Michael has been a great advocate in many ways. I'm tremendously grateful to him for aggressively representing me in my fight to regain my voice. But in other ways Michael has not treated me with the respect and deference an attorney should show to a client.
"I don't want to hurt Michael, but it's time to set the record straight... The truth has always been my greatest ally."
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Responding to the allegations, Avenatti said on Wednesday: "I am and have always been Stormy's biggest champion.
"I have personally sacrificed an enormous amount of money, time and energy toward assisting her because I believe in her... I have always been an open book with Stormy... You need only look back at her numerous prior interviews where she states we talk and communicate multiple times every day about her cases."
Clifford's criticism came during a turbulent time for Avenatti, who was arrested in Los Angeles this month on suspicion of domestic violence, The New York Times reported.
Avenatti has strongly denied the charges.
He has filed three suits against the President and his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, this year, including the one that Clifford said on Wednesday had been filed against her wishes which was dismissed last month by a federal judge.
A second lawsuit seeks to void a 2016 nondisclosure agreement that prevented Clifford from discussing what she said was an affair she had with Trump in 2006.
The third suit claims that Clifford's previous lawyer, Keith Davidson, conspired with Cohen and Trump to keep Clifford quiet.
--IANS
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