Daniels claims defamation, sues
She accuses Trump lawyer of breaking law with payment
LOS ANGELES — Stormy Daniels on Monday accused President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen of breaking federal law when he paid the porn star to stay silent about her alleged affair with Trump, saying he was trying to keep voters from finding out about it before the November 2016 election.
In a revised lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court, Daniels also said Cohen defamed her by, in effect, calling her a liar last month in a public statement challenging her story of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
The lawsuit seeks to void the October 2016 confidentiality agreement that bars her from talking about the alleged affair.
Cohen set up a shell company that paid Daniels $130,000 11 days before the 2016 election.
Daniels now argues that it was an illegal campaign donation, and thus the entire deal is invalid.
The latest allegations came a day after “60 Minutes” aired an interview with Daniels talking about the alleged affair. White House spokesman Raj Shah declined to say whether Trump watched the show, but attacked Daniels’ credibility.
“The president doesn’t believe that any of the claims that Ms. Daniels made last night in the interview are accurate,” Shah said.
Shah declined to comment on allegations that Cohen broke federal law when he arranged payment of the hush money.
Cohen, who had dinner with Trump over the weekend at the president’s Mara-Lago estate in Florida, did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Brent Blakely, a lawyer for Cohen, demanded a retraction and apology from Daniels, saying she suggested on “60 Minutes” that Cohen was behind a physical threat to the porn actress.
Daniels, 39, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told the CBS show that a man confronted her and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011. He warned her not to go public with her story, she said.
Daniels did not accuse Cohen of arranging the threat. But her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, said Monday on NBC’s “Today” show that it had to have been Cohen or someone else involved with Trump.
Cohen’s lawyer told Avenatti in a letter Sunday night that statements blaming Cohen for the threat were false and defamatory.
“In truth, Mr. Cohen had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any such person or incident, and does not even believe that any such person exists, or that such incident ever occurred,” Blakely wrote.
Daniels told “60 Minutes” that the man in the parking lot told her to leave Trump alone, glanced at her baby and said: “It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Blakely demanded she and Avenatti make clear through the national media “that you have no facts or evidence whatsoever to support your allegations that my client had anything whatsoever to do with this alleged thug.”
Avenatti responded by taunting Cohen.
“Will this guy ever come clean with the American people or is he more interested in trying to role play Ray Donovan (badly),” Avenatti told the Los Angeles Times in a text message, referring to the television show about a shady fixer.
The White House spokesman said Trump did not believe Daniels was threatened because there was nothing to corroborate her story.
More broadly, Shah said, Trump “strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims, and the only person who’s been inconsistent is the one making the claims.”
Trump actually has never spoken publicly about Daniels, leaving the task to Cohen and White House press aides.
As for the rationale for the $130,000 payment, Shah said: “False charges are settled out of court all the time. You have to ask Michael Cohen about the specifics.”
Preliminary Nielsen ratings overnight indicated that the “60 Minutes” episode with Daniels was one of the most watched in years.
The ethics group Common Cause has filed complaints alleging that the hush money Cohen wired to Daniels before the November 2016 election was an illegal secret campaign contribution. Cohen denies the payment was meant to influence the election.
With a surge of news on Daniels and a former Playboy model who was also paid during the 2016 campaign to stay silent about an alleged affair with Trump, a spokeswoman for first lady Melania Trump urged the media to stop mentioning the couple’s son, Barron.
At the time of Trump’s alleged extramarital affairs, Barron, who turned 12 last week, was a baby.
The first lady remained at Mar-a-Lago when the president returned to the White House on Sunday night after a weekend getaway that included a dinner with Cohen at the Trump estate in Palm Beach, Fla.