Stormy Daniels, the porn star who had said she had an affair with President Trump when he was just a real-estate tycoon, is now suing him.
Stephanie Clifford, whose porn name is Stormy Daniels, maintains that the “hush agreement” she signed, reportedly for big money, is invalid, NBC News reported.
The reason? Mr. Trump himself never signed it.
The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles and obtained by NBC News, had appended two exhibits showing that while Trump lawyer Michael Cohen signed the 2016 nondisclosure agreement, the future president, even though he’d been given an alias for the purposes of that paper, left his signature spot blank.
Throughout what the new lawsuit calls a “hush agreement,” Mr. Trump is referred to as “David Dennison” and Ms. Clifford as “Peggy Peterson.”
“Each document includes a blank where ’DD’ is supposed to sign, but neither blank is signed,” NBC wrote.
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The second of the two exhibits specifies that “David Dennison / DD” is Mr. Trump.
In a statement last month, Mr. Cohen said he paid $130,000 to Ms. Clifford out of his own pocket, without the knowledge or connivance of Mr. Trump or his organizations or compensation after the fact.
According to the Wall Street Journal, that payment was made in October 2016, the same month as the nondisclosure agreement.
Since October 2016, Mr. Cohen has put out statements on behalf of both Mr. Trump and Ms. Clifford, each saying the person denied the affair.
However Ms. Clifford had given two interviews over the years claiming an extramarital affair with the then-businessman.
Prior to the lawsuit, she had declined to speak on the matter, besides Mr. Cohen’s statements, since Mr. Trump’s election.
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Ms. Clifford and her attorney want the Los Angeles District Court to rule the nondisclosure agreement unenforceable. They cite the news reports from last month in which Mr. Cohen said publicly that he had made the $130,000 payment to her. Those statements nullify the deal, they argue.
The lawsuit also accuses Mr. Trump personally of trying to silence Ms. Clifford through Mr. Cohen.
They cite New York bar rules, which require its members (which includes Mr. Cohen) of keeping clients informed at all times of relevant actions on the client’s behalf.
“It strains credulity to conclude that Mr. Cohen is acting on his own accord and without the express approval and knowledge of his client Mr. Trump,” the filing states, according to NBC News.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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