Trump sued over ‘invalid’ hush agreement

A PORN star sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday to declare a hush agreement over their alleged affair invalid because he had not signed it, documents say.

Los Angeles lawyer Michael Avenatti posted on Twitter a copy of what appears to be the suit filed on behalf of the porn star who goes by the name Stormy Daniels. Her real name is Stephanie Clifford. The hush agreement does “not exist, because, among other things, Mr Trump never signed” the document with a Superior Court of California stamp, the suit says.

It alleges she had an intimate relationship with Trump in 2006 and 2007, which she sought to reveal after Trump won the Republican Party nomination for president and other women claimed to have had sexual encounters with him.

With help from his lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump then sought to “aggressively silence Ms Clifford as part of an effort to avoid her telling the truth, thus helping to ensure he won the presidential election”, the document says.

Cohen prepared a non-disclosure agreement, a copy of which is attached to the lawsuit and which required a $130 000 (R1.5-million) payment to be wired from a company known as Essential Consultants LLC to Clifford in return for her silence.

Using the pseudonyms Peggy Peterson and David Dennison, Clifford and Trump were to sign the agreement.

Days before the 2016 presidential election which Trump won, Clifford put her name to the document, as did Cohen for Essential Consultants, it says.

“Mr Trump, however, did not sign the agreement, thus rendering it legally null and void and of no consequence,” the document states.

Cohen told US media last month that he had paid Clifford $130 000, prompting her manager to suggest that a non-disclosure agreement had been broken.

Trump declined to comment on the issue.