Porn actress
Stormy Daniels files a new lawsuit against President Donald Trump, alleging that he defamed her in a tweet that mocked her for saying a man once physically threatened her on Trump’s behalf.
Stormy Daniels filed a new lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Monday, alleging that he defamed her in a tweet that mocked the porn actress for saying a man once physically threatened her on Trump’s behalf.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, cited Trump’s tweet about a forensic artist’s sketch of a man who she says confronted her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011.
The man suggested she would be harmed if she went public with her story about having a one-night stand with Trump, Daniels said.
“A sketch years later about a nonexistent man,” Trump wrote in the April 18 tweet. “A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”
Daniels’ complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, says it’s “reasonable to infer that the person who threatened Ms. Clifford could have only been acting directly or indirectly on behalf of Mr. Trump” or his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
If Trump was unaware of the threat, the suit alleges, then he posted his tweet in reckless disregard of whether it was true or false, exposing Daniels to hatred, contempt, ridicule, shame and death threats.
The complaint says Trump effectively accused Daniels of committing a crime by fabricating her allegation that a man made an illegal threat.
“In making the statement, Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford,” the suit says.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen had arranged to pay Daniels $130,000 just before the November 2016 presidential election in return for her silence.
Cohen is under federal criminal investigation for his orchestration of the payment, among other things.
Daniels is also suing Trump and Cohen in Los Angeles federal court in an attempt to nullify the nondisclosure agreement.
A judge agreed last week to postpone the case for 90 days after Cohen asserted that he would need to invoke his 5th Amendment rights in the lawsuit.