Stormy Daniels lawyer blames ‘conservative’ CBS for weakening story’s punch

The attorney for Stormy Daniels says her recent “60 Minutes” interview was editorially neutered for viewers by “conservative” CBS.

President Trump’s purported 2006 affair with the adult film star was on the agenda for NBC’s Megyn Kelly this week as she welcomed lawyer Michael Avenatti onto her show. She asked why the heavily hyped event left millions of viewers feeling underwhelmed.

“When she sat for that interview it actually lasted over two hours in length,” Mr. Avenatti said Wednesday. “The portion that the American public saw was only about 14 or 16 minutes of actual interview time.”

“But had it been newsworthy, ’60 Minutes’ would have put it on the air,” the host countered.

“Well, ’60 Minutes’ and CBS, they’re a conservative network,” Mr. Avenatti said. “I mean, there’s a lot of information that was said during that interview that did not make it into the final ’60 Minutes.’”

Ms. Kelly then prompted her guest to clarify his position.

“Conservative like high-brow, you mean. You don’t mean politically conservative,” she said.

Mr. Avenatti then claimed that the network responsible for “The All-Time Hottest Big-Brother Romances” was skittish about airing salacious details.

“No, I mean that they play it very close to the vest,” he said. “For instance, she can describe the president’s genitalia in great detail.”

The 39-year-old porn actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, signed a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement with Mr. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen before the 2016 presidential election.

Ms. Clifford claims the document is invalid because it was never signed by Mr. Trump.

“This is a principled woman at this point. She wants the truth,” Mr. Avenatti said.

“She’s so principled that 11 days before the election, she had information about the possible next President having an extra-marital affair with an adult film actress and she shut up about it in exchange for just over 100 grand,” the host replied, Mediaite reported. “She wanted the dough! And now she wants to keep the dough while violating the agreement, which — whether you like Michael Cohen or Donald Trump or not — doesn’t seem fair to them.”