Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against President Trump, who called her claim of being threatened over her alleged affair with the president “a total con job.”
Ms. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said Mr. Trump’s tweets mocking the sketch of a man who allegedly threatened her is defamation because he accuses her of fabricating a crime, which is is illegal.
“Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford,” her attorney, Michael Avenatti, said in the complaint. “Mr. Trump knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world as well as widely reported, and that Ms. Clifford would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm and repetitional damage as a result.”
Ms. Daniels has repeatedly alleged she had a tryst with Mr. Trump in 2006, a claim he has denied.
During media appearances, Ms. Daniels claimed that in 2011, after she agreed to discuss the alleged affair with In Touch magazine, she was threatened in a Las Vegas parking lot by man who demanded she keep quiet. Her lawyers released a composite sketch of the man on April 17.
Ms. Daniels has said the man looked at her infant daughter and said, “it’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.” The incident was not reported to the police, Ms. Daniels said.
Mr. Trump dismissed her claim in an April 18 Twitter post.
“A sketch years later about a nonexistent man,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “A total con job playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”
Ms. Daniels is seeking more than $75,000 in damages, saying that the president’s comments resulted in death threats and she had to hire bodyguards to ensure her safety.
The latest suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Manhattan, is separate from another lawsuit against Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. That suit is part of an effort to scuttle a 2016 hush agreement arranged by Mr. Cohen.
The agreement paid Ms. Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her affair with Mr. Trump, who is also a defendant in that lawsuit.
A California judge last week halted that lawsuit for 90 days while a criminal investigation against Mr. Cohen moves forward. He has not been charged with any crimes.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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