Steve Bannon suggests Trump's lawyer 'took care' of 'a hundred' women during the presidential campaign

Joshua Roberts/Reuters

President Donald Trump

• Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon alleged that one of President Donald Trump's attorneys "took care" of 100 women during the presidential campaign.
• Bannon made this claim in journalist Michael Wolff's recently published tell-all book about the Trump White House. 
• The comment may take on new significance after The Wall Street Journal reported that another Trump attorney paid a porn star $130,000 to prevent her from discussing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. 

Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former top strategist, alleged in journalist Michael Wolff's tell-all book about the Trump White House that the president's longtime attorney, Marc Kasowitz, "took care" of 100 women during the presidential campaign.

"Look, Kasowitz has known [Trump] for twenty-five years. Kasowitz has gotten him out of all kinds of jams," Bannon reportedly said. "Kasowitz on the campaign - what did we have, a hundred women? Kasowitz took care of all of them." 

This apparently off-hand remark may take on new significance after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that another lawyer for the president, Michael Cohen, sent $130,000 to a porn star just weeks before the 2016 presidential election to keep her silent about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

The Journal reported that Cohen, who was the Trump Organization's top attorney for about a decade, arranged for the payment to Stephanie Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, in October 2016 after a negotiation between her lawyer and Cohen on a nondisclosure agreement.

Clifford has said privately that the encounter happened at a July 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, the newspaper reported.

Trump married his third wife, Melania Trump, in 2005.

Cohen said in a statement to The Journal that Trump "once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels." Cohen also did not address any payment.

Bannon made the remark about the 100 women as part of a larger discussion about the president's top advisors, some of whom he disparaged at length in Wolff's controversial book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," which the president has condemned as "full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist." 

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg drew attention to Bannon's comment in a tweet on Friday afternoon, shortly after the publication of the Journal report. 

At least 22 women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct - including ogling, harassment, groping, and rape - between the 1970s and 2013. 

Another adult-film star, Jessica Drake, in October 2016 accused Trump of kissing her without permission at that same 2006 golf tournament that Clifford attended. The White House has called her accusation "totally false and ridiculous."

Allan Smith contributed to this report.