Model wants additional $200k from GOP donor
A former Playboy centrefold model who claims to have had an affair with a top fundraiser for United States President Donald Trump wants him to pay an additional $200,000, ($NZ294,000) beyond a $1.6 million settlement, according to court documents unsealed yesterday.
Shera Bechard filed a lawsuit under seal earlier this month against the fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, her former attorney Keith Davidson, and Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Several news organisations fought to make the lawsuit public and a redacted copy was released yesterday.
Bechard and Broidy had an affair, which led to Bechard becoming pregnant, and Broidy agreed to pay her $1.6 million as part of a confidentiality agreement, according to court documents. The settlement was supposed to be made in a series of eight payments of $200,000.
Broidy stopped making payments in July – after paying two instalments – and alleges that the agreement was breached because Davidson had improperly discussed the details of the confidentiality agreement with Avenatti, according to the lawsuit. Bechard charges that Broidy’s refusal to pay is a breach of the agreement.
Davidson negotiated a settlement with Michael Cohen, who represented Broidy but is best known as President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney. Bechard alleges that Davidson was secretly working with Cohen and had negotiated a settlement that was advantageous to Broidy and 35 per cent of the payments were to go to Davidson.
Avenatti said that Davidson – who had once represented Daniels – had volunteered information about Bechard’s agreement in April. –