Porn star Stormy Daniels believes she is now free to discuss her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump after the US President’s personal lawyer acknowledged paying her $US130,000 ($182,000) just before Election Day.

A manager for the adult film actress told The Associated Press on Thursday morning (AEDT) that Ms Daniels believes Mr Trump’s lawyer invalidated a non-disclosure agreement by publicly discussing the payment.

Gina Rodriguez said the actress will discuss her alleged 2006 extramarital affair with Mr Trump.

Mr Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, revealed on Wednesday that he paid Ms Daniels with his own funds.

His admission came after a campaign finance advocacy organisation urged the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate.

The celebrity news site The Blast first reported Ms Daniels’ new position. She previously played coy when asked about Mr Trump.

Mr Cohen said in his statement to the New York Times he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organisation or the Trump campaign for the payment to Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Mr Cohen wrote: “The payment to Ms Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”

He said he had delivered a similar statement to the FEC in response to a complaint filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog group.

Common Cause had asked the FEC to investigate the source of the $US130,000 payment and to determine whether it represented an excessive campaign contribution.

Mr Cohen told the Times: “The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Mr Cohen had arranged the payment to Ms Clifford in October 2016 to keep her from publicly discussing the alleged sexual encounter during the presidential campaign.

A week later, In Touch magazine published a 2011 interview with Ms Clifford, in which she claimed she and Mr Trump had a sexual encounter after meeting at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, a year after Mr Trump’s marriage to his third wife, Melania.

At the end of January, Ms Clifford said in a statement the alleged affair never occurred.

But in a TV interview the same day, she appeared to disown the statement, saying she did not know where it came from and the signature did not look like hers.

– With AAP