Stormy Daniels seeking Trump’s answers under oath
Cranking up pressure on the president, porn actress Stormy Daniels wants Donald Trump to answer her attorney’s questions under oath about a preelection payment aimed at keeping her quiet about their alleged tryst.
If she’s successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his conduct with women.
Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, is seeking sworn testimony from Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, about a $130,000 payment made to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate. Avenatti filed the motion in U.S. District Court in California on Wednesday.
Trump has kept a low profile all week, as has first lady Melania Trump, who is spending the week in Florida. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had denied the allegations and directed further questions to outside counsel. Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz, told CBS that the filing was a “reckless use of the legal system.’’
Despite the pushback, the persistent focus on Daniels is a troubling distraction for a White House already struggling with an exodus of top staffers, a floundering agenda and the looming threat from the Russia investigation.
Avenatti is just one on a growing list of lawyers looking to question Trump. Attorneys for a former “Apprentice’’ contestant have said they want to depose the president as part of a defamation suit. And the president’s legal team continues to negotiate with special counsel Robert Mueller over the scope and terms of an interview with the president.
A hard-charging attorney maintaining a near-constant presence on television news, Avenatti wants to question Trump and Cohen for “no more than two hours.’’ In the filing, he says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the payment, which Avenatti refers to as a “hush agreement,’’ and if the future president consented to it.
“We’re looking for sworn answers from the president and Mr. Cohen about what they knew, when they knew it and what they did about it,’’ Avenatti told The Associated Press.
While he noted that “in every case you always have to be open to settlement,’’ Avenatti said that “at this point we don’t see how this case would possibly be settled.’’
A former businessman, Trump is no stranger to highstakes litigation, sitting for depositions in contract and defamation lawsuits over the years. Those interviews show his deep experience in giving statements to lawyers, but also reveal a witness who could be voluble, boastful and, at times, combative.
Georgetown University law professor Naomi Mezey said a deposition presented risks because it is the way to get the president in a vulnerable position. “And President Trump is a particularly vulnerable president,’’ Mezey said.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, detailed her alleged 2006 tryst with Trump in a widely watched interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes’’ broadcast Sunday. She said she’d had sex with him once, shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to the president’s youngest son.
Daniels also said that a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was with her infant daughter, and threatened her with physical harm if she went public with her story.