Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen tweets picture of his own 'beautiful' daughter in lingerie

'Dude tweeting this makes you look like a real f---ing creep', writes one Twitter user

Attorney Michael Cohen at Trump Tower (AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s lawyer has hit out at critics after he tweeted an image of his daughter, Samantha Blake, dressed in lingerie.

Michael Cohen posted the black and white photograph to his more than 215,000 followers with the caption: “So proud of my Ivy League daughter… brains and beauty channelling her Edie Sedwick.”

He later explained that the image was a "modelling shot" remaking a famous sixties photograph of American socialite, actress and model Edie Sedgwick, a friend and muse of Andy Warhol.

But the post has been widely pilloried on social media, with some users dubbing “creepy” and “bizarre”.

Others drew links between Mr Cohen's comments and those of President Trump about his own daughter, Ivanka. Thousands shared user Bonnie Bratnober’s tweet: “POTUS wants to date his daughter, the VP calls his wife “mother”, and DJT’s attorney posts spank-bank material of his daughter”. Bratnober unapologetically admitted in a later tweet that the post was "vulgar"

Mr Cohen responded directly to a number of users. To Ms Bratnober, he asked simply: "Jealous?"

Another person pointed out the strangeness of a father posting a photograph of his daughter dressed in underwear, to which the lawyer replied: “Beauty and brains you a-hole!"

He proceeded to brand his critics generally as “hater[s]”.

Mr Cohen is no stranger to courting controversy in his own right. In a 2015 interview with the Daily Beast about rape allegations against Mr Trump – which have since been retracted – he said that sexual intercourse with a spouse can never legally be considered rape.

He later apologised for the comment.

The US President has at times delighted in causes outrage with comments he has made about his daughter Ivanka, who now serves as an adviser with her own White House office. .

According to the then-Miss Universe, Brook Antoinette Mahealani Lee, Mr Trump turned to her during a Miss Teen US pageant Ivanka was hosting at the age of 16 and asked: “Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right?”

And in a now infamous 2006 interview in front of a live studio audience for The View, Mr Trump told the hosts: “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”