Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Rudy Giuliani.
- President Donald Trump's outside attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said during an Israeli conference Wednesday that first lady Melania Trump "believes her husband" and "doesn't think" he had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
- "Someone who sells his or her body for money has no good name," Giuliani said of Daniels.
- Daniels's attorney, Michael Avenatti, fired back on Twitter, calling Giuliani a "misogynist."
Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, said Wednesday that first lady Melania Trump "believes her husband" when it comes to porn star Stormy Daniels's allegation of a 2006 affair with him.
Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and US attorney, made the comment at the "Globes" Capital Market conference in Tel Aviv.
"She believes her husband, and she doesn't think it's true," Giuliani said, adding that sex workers lack credibility. "I respect women - beautiful women and women with value - but a woman who sells her body for sexual exploitation I don't respect. Tell me what damage she suffered. Someone who sells his or her body for money has no good name."
Daniels's attorney, Michael Avenatti, fired back on Twitter shortly after.
"Mr. Giuliani is a misogynist," he wrote. "His most recent comments regarding my client, who passed a lie detector test and who the American people believe, are disgusting and a disgrace. His client Mr. Trump didn't seem to have any 'moral' issues with her and others back in 2006 and beyond."
The controversy surrounding Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and the president centers on a $130,000 hush money payment Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, facilitated to the porn star just weeks before the 2016 presidential election in an effort to keep her quiet about her allegation of a 2006 affair with Trump.
Cohen is now the focus of a criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York into whether he violated campaign-finance laws or committed bank fraud.
Daniels, meanwhile, is suing Cohen and Trump in California, seeking to void that nondisclosure agreement, and last month filed a motion to revive that lawsuit. On Wednesday, she filed a new lawsuit in California court alleging that he former attorney, Keith Davidson, who helped ink the hush money agreement, had betrayed her and became a "puppet" for Trump and Cohen while the attorney still represented her.
Cohen and the White House have denied that an affair took place. But Trump hasn't publicly made that claim.