March 7 (UPI) — A former porn star filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Tuesday to nullify a legal agreement that requires her be silent about an affair they allegedly had several years ago.
Stephanie Clifford, who worked as a pornographic performer under the name “Stormy Daniels,” said the agreement is not valid because Trump never signed it himself. Instead, the agreement is Clifford and “David Dennison,” which Clifford says is a pseudonym for Trump. Dennison is signed for under “EC” for EC, LLC, a private company Clifford says is supposed to represent Trump via Dennison.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles court, says that Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, reached out to her during the 2016 presidential campaign when he found out she was planning to publicly tell her story about having an affair with Trump in 2006.
Cohen, Clifford said, offered her $130,000 as part of a Hush Agreement to not speak publicly about the affair.
“On or about October 28, 2016, only days before the election, two of the parties signed the Hush Agreement — Ms. Clifford and Mr. Cohen. Mr. Trump, however, did not sign the agreement, thus rendering it legally null and void and of no consequence,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit goes on to claim that Trump “purposely did not sign the agreement so he could later, if need be, publicly disavow any knowledge of the Hush Agreement and Ms. Clifford.”
But Cohen still sent the $130,000 to Clifford, which he says was not at the behest of Trump, who denies the affair allegations.
“In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,00 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford,” Cohen said in a statement last month. “Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.”
Clifford’s lawsuit goes on to accuse Cohen of intimidating her to keep silent about the alleged affair, even after she has already given several media interviews about the subject.
“For example, only days ago on or about February 27, 2018, Mr. Trump’s attorney Mr. Cohen surreptitiously initiated a bogus arbitration proceeding against Ms. Clifford in Los Angeles,” the lawsuit states. “Remarkably, he did so without even providing Ms. Clifford with notice of the proceeding and basic due process.”
Clifford’s lawsuit seeks an order from the court to absolve her of any duties or obligations to the contract she signed and to pay for the cost of the lawsuit.
