In addition to an ongoing lawsuit against US President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, adult-film star Stormy Daniels has filed a new lawsuit against Trump accusing him of defaming her in one of his tweets.
The complaint alleges that Trump's tweets mocking Daniels over a forensic sketch of a man she says threatened her to keep quiet about her claims of an affair with the president amount to defamation because they accuse her of fabricating the alleged crime, which would itself be illegal.
Trump has more than 50 million Twitter followers. The White House declined comment on the case.
Trump on Monday tweeted that she was pulling a “con job” on the news media in what apparently was his first public comment about her allegations against him.
A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! https://t.co/9Is7mHBFda
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
“Mr. Trump's statement is false and defamatory,” says Daniels' lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Manhattan under her real name, Stephanie Clifford.
“In making the statement, Mr. Trump uses his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford.”
Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti told CNBC on Monday, “Even if you're the president of the United States, you cannot simply fabricate a story in order to fit your strategic purpose.”
“There are serious consequences for that,” Avenatti said.
Michael Cohen lawsuit
Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen has been at the center of a controversy surrounding a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, who has allegedly had sex with Trump in 2006 and was paid money shortly before the 2016 election to say nothing about the affair.
Cohen has also circulated a statement signed by Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in which the actress denied receiving “hush money” from Trump.
Cohen, who worked as a counsel to the Trump Organization for more than a decade, said in a statement to The New York Times that he paid the money to Daniels out of his own pocket.
“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,” Cohen said.
“The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.”
However, Cohen gas refused to answer several follow-up questions, including whether Trump had known that he made the payment, or why he paid such money or whether he had made similar payments to other people.
Cohen is also a defendant with Trump in Daniels' other pending lawsuit in a Los Angeles federal court, which she seeks to void the nondisclosure agreement about the alleged affair. Daniels claims the agreement is not valid because Trump never signed it.
In that case, she also claims that Cohen defamed her by allegedly suggesting that Daniels is lying about the purported relationship with Trump.