April 29, 2024
OAN today has retracted its March 27 article entitled “Whistleblower: Avenatti Alleged Cohen Daniels Affair Since 2006, Pre-2016 Trump Extortion Plan,” and is taking it down from all sites and removing it from all social media. This retraction is part of a settlement reached with Michael Cohen. The so-called whistleblower, Mr. Avenatti, has denied making the allegations. OAN apologizes to Mr. Cohen for any harm the publication may have caused him.
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NO PERSON SHOULD RELY ON THE MARCH 27 ARTICLE OR THE ALLEGATIONS CONTAINED THEREIN.
The article, quoting a source, falsely claimed that Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels “were having an affair since 2006” and that, according to a source, “the whole hush money scheme was cooked up by [Mr. Cohen] to extort the Trump Organization before the 2016 election.” These statements were false. OAN regrets their publication.
Mr. Cohen alerted OAN to the false statements. OAN promptly investigated and learned that Mr. Avenatti denied making the allegations. To be clear, no evidence suggests that Mr. Cohen and Ms. Daniels were having an affair and no evidence suggests that Mr. Cohen “cooked up” the scheme to extort the Trump Organization before the 2016 election.
Mr. Cohen states that OAN’s article is false. He writes that “I did not have an affair with Stormy Daniels and furthermore I did not ‘cook up’ the allegations to extort the Trump Organization before the 2016 election.” Mr. Cohen continued: “The notion that right before the election I would extort the man I fervently supported and believed was about to become president, all to make $130,000 that I did not even keep for myself, is beyond absurd. It’s just plain stupid.”
Mr. Cohen states that he and Ms. Daniels never met or even spoke to one another until a 2021 podcast interview. In that interview – well before the alleged plot was hatched – the two both stated at that time that they had never met before.
Mr. Avenatti, who is currently in prison, made a statement through a paralegal, Emma Hernandez, who said that she “assists” Mr. Avenatti “with his cases”. She provided Mr. Avenatti’s response as follows: “you folks should be smarter than to believe this nonsense. The story is completely fabricated, untrue and bogus, and is nothing more than a ridiculous attempt by this idiot [the Source] to try and escape being a nobody.”
Ms. Daniels also denied the allegations in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in response to the original article. In a statement, Michael Cohen stated: “I am pleased that OAN has agreed to retract this story and has acknowledged that the statement is false. While this settlement cannot undo the harm that the publication caused me, it is important to set the record straight-which is what this settlement does.”