Adult film star Stormy Daniels is suing President Donald Trump because he never signed an agreement to keep their relationship private.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, came after Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in recent weeks, filing for arbitration. A document signed by Clifford and Cohen — but never Trump — promised Clifford $130,000 if she agreed not to publicly discuss the details of her relationship with Trump.
Trump did not sign the document, but Cohen still sent Clifford the $130,000 — out of his own pocket. Trump has reportedly not paid Cohen back.
Clifford’s lawsuit rejects Trump and his legal team’s attempts to scare Clifford into silence. According to the complaint, Cohen in January forced Clifford to sign a statement that her reports on the relationship weren’t true.
“To be clear, the attempts to intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and ‘shut her up’ in order to ‘protect Mr. Trump’ continue unabated,” the complaint states.
“For example, only days ago on or about February 27, 2018, Mr. Trump’s attorney Mr. Cohen surreptitiously initiated a bogus arbitration proceeding against Ms. Clifford in Los Angeles.
“Remarkably, he did so without even providing Ms. Clifford with notice of the proceeding and basic due process.”
Michael Avenatti, Clifford’s attorney, shared a copy of the complaint on Twitter. According to the document, Clifford and Trump had a relationship from 2006 to 2007. (Trump married his third wife, Melania, in 2005.) Clifford decided to go public with the details of her relationship with Trump in October 2016, shortly after the recording leaked of Trump bragging about grabbing women’s genitals. When Trump’s lawyer got wind of this he drafted the “Hush Agreement.”
The Hush Agreement refers to Clifford and Trump as “Peggy Peterson” or “PP” and “David Dennison” or “DD,” respectively. Avenatti uploaded a copy of the document, and Trump’s signature is in fact missing.
While Trump’s attorney has done most of the speaking in the president’s defense, Clifford’s legal team notes that it would be highly unlikely for Cohen to be using scare tactics without the president’s direction.
“Put simply, considerable steps have been taken by Mr. Cohen in the last week to silence Ms. Clifford through the use of an improper and procedurally defective arbitration proceeding hidden from public view. The extent of Mr. Trump’s involvement in these efforts is presently unknown, but it strains credibility to conclude that Mr. Cohen is acting on his own accord without the express approval and knowledge of his client Mr. Trump.”
