Charges fly both ways in Stormy Daniels case
In a flurry of charge and counter-charge, Stormy Daniels sued her former lawyer, saying he undercut her interests in the scandal over an alleged affair with President Trump. Her ex-counsel immediately fired back with a defamation lawsuit.
Daniels, in a suit filed Wednesday, called Keith Davidson a puppet of the president and his attorney Michael Cohen, who paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about what she says was a one-night stand with Trump in 2006. Citing text messages between Davidson and Cohen, she accused her lawyer of colluding with Trump’s attorney to her detriment.
Davidson, whose office is in Beverly Hills, denied any impropriety.
He said he welcomed the lawsuit, because it would free him to defend himself publicly against false allegations made by Daniels’ current attorney, Michael Avenatti. It in effect waives the attorney-client confidentiality that has kept him muzzled as Avenatti attacks him, Davidson said.
“This outrageously frivolous lawsuit is yet another desperate attempt by Michael Avenatti to continue his ‘publicity tour,’ as well as divert attention from the recent allegations against him relating to bankruptcy proceedings and the failure to withhold millions of federal employee taxes,” Davidson said, alluding to the bankruptcy and tax delinquency of the Eagan Avenatti law firm in Newport Beach.
A New York federal judge admonished Avenatti on May 30 for denigrating Cohen in frequent television appearances that she dismissed as a “publicity tour.” The judge, Kimba Wood, was presiding in a court dispute over FBI raids on Cohen’s office, home and hotel room. Her comments led Avenatti to drop his request to participate in the case.
“Mr. Davidson is a liar and a scum bag,” Avenatti said by email. “He is now trying to distract away from his own unethical lapses by telling lies about things wholly unrelated to this case. He also clearly doesn’t know the law as it relates to the attorney-client privilege.”
Daniels’ complaint in state Superior Court in Santa Monica is the third suit she has filed involving her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in the early years of his marriage to Melania Trump.
Daniels’ latest lawsuit also names Cohen as a defendant. It says Cohen knew that Davidson had a professional obligation not to collude with him to benefit Trump. But Cohen “made a conscious decision to participate in the wrongful conduct,” the complaint says.
In the weeks before the November 2016 presidential election, Davidson and Cohen negotiated the deal to pay Daniels the hush money.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says in the new lawsuit that when In Touch magazine began publishing details of her encounter with Trump in January, Davidson worked with Cohen to “manipulate Ms. Clifford in a manner designed to benefit Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump.”
The complaint includes texts between Davidson and Cohen arranging for Daniels to deny the affair in an appearance, which never occurred, on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News.
The suit accuses Davidson of secretly tipping off Cohen to Daniels’ plan to talk publicly about having sex with Trump and sue the president to void her confidentiality pact.
On Thursday, Davidson slapped back with a countersuit alleging that he was defamed by Daniels and Avenatti, citing a tweet that suggested Davidson was once arrested for extortion. “Watch him try now and distract away from his unethical conduct,” Avenatti wrote. “Ms. Daniels deserved better.”
“Keith Davidson has never been arrested for extortion as falsely alleged by defendants,” his countersuit said. The lawsuit added that the statement “and similar ones” by Daniels and Avenatti “were made with hatred and ill will toward [Davidson] and the design and intent to injure him, his good name, his reputation, employment and employability.”
The claim of extortion apparently referred to an FBI sting operation involving Hulk Hogan.
In 2012, Davidson sought $300,000 for a client for a secretly taped video of the pro wrestler having sex, law enforcement records show. Davidson met Hogan in a Florida hotel room — unaware it was wired with recording devices monitored by FBI agents in an adjacent room.
As soon as Hogan’s lawyer handed Davidson a phony check for $150,000, the supposed first installment, FBI agents stormed in and detained him, according to the records. Davidson was not charged with criminal wrongdoing in that case.
Davidson’s countersuit Thursday also accused Cohen of illegally taping his phone conversations. Cohen attorney Brent Blakely could not be reached for comment.
Davidson said Daniels, while his client, expressed more interest in making sure she kept the $130,000 than ensuring the public knew the truth about her relationship with Trump — which she now cites as justification for speaking out.
Avenatti lashed out at Davidson again, calling him “a proven liar.”
“He is an embarrassment to the profession and seems to have forgotten what the attorney-client privilege is all about,” Avenatti said. “We look forward to having his frivolous claims thrown out of court.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, a spokeswoman for First Lady Melania Trump pushed back on an assertion from Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s outside counsel, that she “believes her husband” when he denied an affair with Daniels.
“I don’t believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani,” spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told the New York Times.