The suit claims Trump himself never signed a “hush agreement.”
Stephanie Clifford (aka
Stormy Daniels), who claims she had an affair with
Donald Trump, is now suing the president.
According to a lawsuit Clifford filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, Trump didn’t sign a nondisclosure agreement with the former adult film star, which blocked her from disclosing their 2006 relationship. According to the suit, Clifford and Trump’s lawyer signed the document, but Trump did not, allegedly making the agreement “null and void.”
According to Tuesday’s suit, Clifford and Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen both signed what it calls a “hush agreement” and a side letter agreement on Oct. 28, 2016, just 11 days before the presidential election. The documents are appended to the lawsuit.
The 2016 “hush agreement” detailed that $130,000 would be paid to Clifford’s then-attorney in exchange for Clifford not disclosing any confidential information about Trump or his sexual partners. The suit claims Clifford and Trump’s intimate relationship started in the summer of 2006 and went “well into the year 2007.”
“This relationship included, among other things, at least one ‘meeting’ with Mr. Trump in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel located within Los Angeles County,” the suit claims.
Clifford’s attoreny, Michael Avenatti, released a copy of the complaint for declaratory relief on Twitter on Tuesday.
In January, The Wall Street Journal reported that Clifford had an affair with Trump in 2006, the year after he married Melania Knauss on Jan. 22, 2005, and a few months after their son, Barron, was born on March 20.
The suit claims that Trump “aggressively sought to silence Ms. Clifford as part of an effort to avoid her telling the truth” through the intervention of Cohen. The report said Clifford was paid $130,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement and not discuss the relationship.
At the time of the Journal’s report, Clifford’s lawyer released a statement from the actress denying the affair. But Tuesday’s lawsuit said Clifford was forced into signing that denial by Cohen through “intimidation and coercive tactics.”
Clifford also claims that Cohen had tried to block her from talking about the affair as recently as Feb. 27.
“Put simply, considerable steps have been taken by Mr. Cohen in the last week to silence Ms. Clifford,” the claim reads. “The extent of Mr. Trump’s involvement in these efforts is presently unknown, but it strains credibility to conclude that Mr. Cohen is acting on his own accord.”
After Cohen told The New York Times last month that he had in fact paid Clifford $130,000 in 2016, Clifford said she was free “to tell her story” because Cohen’s discussion of the agreement invalidated it. Cohen at the time did not say what the payment was for and said that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign reimbursed him for the payment.
The White House has denied the affair.
Attorney Avenatti told HuffPost late Tuesday: “We confirm all facts as alleged in the complaint.”
HuffPost also reached out to the White House and Cohen for comment but did not receive a response as of this posting.