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Michael Cohen to Assert 5th Amendment in Stormy Daniels Lawsuit

Michael Cohen to Assert 5th Amendment in Stormy Daniels Lawsuit

Michael Cohen to Assert 5th Amendment in Stormy Daniels Lawsuit
Michael Cohen, personal lawyer to U.S. President Donald Trump, center, exits from Federal Court in New York. (Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s long-term lawyer Michael Cohen said he will assert his constitutional right against self-incrimination in the lawsuit by adult-film star Stormy Daniels because of the ongoing criminal investigation against him.

Cohen filed a declaration in federal court in Los Angeles Wednesday after a judge said at a hearing last week that he won’t put the case on hold unless he hears from Cohen himself rather than his lawyers.

Federal investigators are looking, among other things, at the $130,000 Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in 2016 to guarantee her silence about the alleged affair she had with Trump.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg

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