WASHINGTON: Porn actress Stormy Daniels took aim at Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live with comedy as her lawyer pressed forward on Sunday with a straight-faced media offensive against the president.

Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti appear emboldened by the revelation that Trump reimbursed his attorney for a payment to the porn star, undercutting the president’s assertion that he did not know about it.

On SNL, Daniels took a call from the president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen — played by comedian Ben Stiller — at the request of Trump, represented by Alec Baldwin. Trump said he would just listen in as they spoke, and Cohen asked Daniels if she was alone.

“What are you wearing?” the fake Trump blurted out, to laughter, before cutting the faux Cohen out of the call.

Trump has denied allegations from Daniels, a porn star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, that they had an affair in 2006.

In a skit that got playfully raunchy at times, Trump is asked by Daniels what it would take to make the whole thing go away.

“A resignation,” she said with a smile.

While Daniels made the comment on a comedy show, Avenatti echoed it to The Guardian. “Ultimately, [Trump] is going to be forced to resign,” he told the newspaper.

“I firmly believe there is going to be too much evidence of wrongdoing by him and those around him for him to be able to survive the balance of his term,” Avenatti said.

Cohen has admitted he paid Daniels $130,000 just days before the 2016 election as part of a non-disclosure agreement he insists she has since repeatedly violated.

Trump had denied knowing anything about the payment until his new lawyer Rudy Giuliani acknowledged that the president had in fact reimbursed Cohen for the payoff, which arguably may have violated federal campaign finance laws.

“We have evidence that the president knew in the months at least following the campaign of this payment, certainly knew it long before his statement on Air Force One in April of this year where he effectively stood there and lied to the American people” about it, Avenatti told ABC’s This Week.

Giuliani said on This Week that he had no knowledge of other similar payments by Cohen, but that the attorney could have made them “if it was necessary”. Avenatti jumped on Giuliani’s remarks.

“The president had effectively an extramarital affair slush fund that was administered by Michael Cohen, and that he would just be expected to take care of these things; they were a regular occurrence,” Avenatti said. “That, in and of itself, should be very disturbing.”

In the SNL skit, Trump rattled off what he called a series of achievements as president, including progress on the Korean nuclear crisis. Why can’t he resolve things with Daniels, too, he asked.

“Sorry, Donald. It’s too late for that. I know you don’t believe in climate change. But a storm’s a-comin’, baby,” she said.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2018