Michael Cohen files for restraining order to stop Stormy Daniels' lawyer from speaking to the press

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer has filed a request for a restraining order against Stormy Daniels’ lawyer to stop him from speaking to the media about the adult actor’s case.

Michael Cohen asked a federal judge in California to sign a gag order to stop Michael Avenatti, who is representing Ms Daniels, from speaking to reporters and releasing information about the lawsuit to the public.

In a court filing in Los Angeles, a lawyer for Mr Cohen argues Mr Avenatti has been tainting the case with a “publicity tour” that has comprised more than 100 television interviews since March.

The motion cited interviews Mr Avenatti gave as recently as Wednesday on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Lead with Jake Tapper and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.

Mr Cohen’s lawyer, Brent Blakely, alleges Mr Avenatti “routinely denigrates” Mr Cohen.

"Avenatti's actions are mainly driven by his seemingly unquenchable thirst for publicity," the filing says.

Mr Blakely argues in court documents that Mr Avenatti’s behaviour, including the almost daily tweets about Mr Cohen, is unethical, puts his client’s capacity to have a fair trial at risk and is turning the case into a “media circus”.

He said the “malicious attacks on Mr Cohen must be stopped in its tracks".

Mr Avenatti has hit out the filing and branded it a “motion for a gag order”.

"The motion for a gag order is a complete joke and baseless. Mr Cohen and Brent Blakely can't deal with the truth, the facts, and the law, so they have to resort to unethical, meritless motions. This must be their birthday present to Mr Trump," he tweeted.

Mr Cohen paid Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 (£98,000) days before the 2016 presidential election, as part of a hush agreement to prevent the adult film star from publicly discussing her alleged sexual encounter with Mr Trump.

In recent weeks, Mr Trump also acknowledged he personally reimbursed Mr Cohen for that payment.

The US president has denied having sex with Ms Daniels.

Ms Daniels is suing the two men, as well as Mr Cohen's shell company, Essential Consultants, to attempt to annul the 2016 hush agreement that sought to stop her from speaking out about the alleged affair.

In May, Mr Avenatti publicly released Mr Cohen's bank records, which showed US companies and foreign interests had forked out hundreds of thousands of dollars to the same shell company Mr Cohen used to pay Ms Daniels. The payments were allegedly for access to Mr Trump.