In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, David Schwartz, the attorney that represents Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen, made a huge admission that could free up adult actress Stormy Daniels from her non-disclosure agreement about her alleged affair with the president.
"[Trump] was not aware of any of it, wasn't told about it," Schwartz argued when making the case that Trump didn't know about the $130,000 "hush agreement" his client paid Daniels just before the 2016 election. "Michael Cohen left the option open. That's why he left that signature line, the option open to go to him. He chose not to. He chose to bind the LLC, EC LLC and Stormy Daniels into the contract."
Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, noted on Twitter that Schwartz's gambit may have backfired.
"Michael Cohen's attorney just claimed on @OutFrontCNN that Trump was not aware of the Stormy Daniels agreement or the payment, which means that there was no contract between Trump and Daniels, and Daniels can release the materials," he tweeted. "Why would he admit this on national television?"
In response to his tweet, author C.H. Armstrong asked if the admission shows, if nothing else, that Cohen broke American Bar Association regulations that prohibit attorneys from giving money to or making payments on behalf of a client. Mariotti responded that if this were true, Trump's lawyer did indeed break that regulation, linking to an explanation of the rule.
Watch the video of Schwartz's strange legal strategy below, via CNN: