Stormy Daniels Is Beating Donald Trump at His Own Game
A running gag in political journalism is that all the bombshells drop late on a Friday, by the time most reporters are done for the week and our public servants and institutions are expected to be done making news. And sure enough, last week the Trump administration sent shockwaves through Washington with the late-Friday firing of Andrew McCabe, a former deputy of dismissed FBI director James Comey, mere days before he was set to enjoy what he calls his “long-planned, earned retirement.”
Planned or not, the upheaval that followed McCabe’s dismissal effectively buried what could soon become the most significant arbitration dispute in all of American history. That same evening, Donald Trump — through Charles Harder, the lawyer best known for helping Peter Thiel put Gawker out of business — attached his name to a court filing that, for the first time, linked him to Stephanie Clifford. The woman, better known in the adult-film industry and now the world of politics as Stormy Daniels, was fighting for her right to be ungagged — to speak freely and publicly about an affair she had with Trump over a decade ago, while he and his third wife Melania were awaiting the birth of their son Barron.
But before Harder filed that document in federal court last week, Trump was nowhere to be seen. The White House had denied any sexual encounters ever happened, the president was uncharacteristically silent about Clifford on Twitter, and his other lawyer and perennial fixer, Michael Cohen, had repeatedly denied that his client had anything to do with her. No more: “Mr. Trump intends to pursue his rights to the fullest extent permitted by law,” Harder wrote. By which he meant that Trump intended to seek enforcement of a non-disclosure agreement, to the tune of $20 million, that Cohen had made Clifford sign less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election. In exchange for her silence, Clifford accepted $130,000 from Cohen, who reportedly took out a home-equity loan to execute the payoff. Because who amongst us hasn’t done that at some point.
A cruel irony of this “hush agreement,” as Clifford put it in her own lawsuit seeking to free herself from it, is that it was signed on October 28, 2016 — the same day Comey, in a letter to Congress, may have cost Hillary Clinton the presidential election. The volatility of that political moment lends credence to Clifford’s charge that Cohen, in concert with Trump and his campaign, “aggressively sought to silence Mr. Clifford as part of an effort to avoid her telling her truth, thus helping to ensure he won” the presidency, according to court papers her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, filed in a Los Angeles county court. That opens up another front for the already legally beleaguered Trump: If there’s any truth to this coordination, and the Federal Election Commission substantiates it, the unreported hush money may have well violated campaign finance laws.
Cohen, for his part, has insisted that he just did this to help out a longtime client, benefactor, and friend. “People are mistaking this for a thing about the campaign,” Cohen told Vanity Fair this week. “What I did defensively for my personal client, and my friend, is what attorneys do for their high-profile clients. I would have done it in 2006. I would have done it in 2011. I truly care about him and the family — more than just as an employee and an attorney.” But do friends really take out home-equity loans, create shell companies in Delaware, use fake names, and draw up legally dubious, if not wholly unenforceable, NDAs to force someone else’s silence? For all we know, Cohen could even lose his New York law license for engaging in such shady tactics.
The brilliance of Clifford’s legal and public-relations moves, including this Sunday’s long-awaited interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, is that they outmaneuver Trump at every turn — which may explain his own reticence about the whole thing since the Wall Street Journal blew the lid off it in January. In a wide-ranging articleexploring the seven-year saga, there’s a fantastic quote attributed to Cohen, whom Clifford is accusing of breaching the hush agreement because he himself confirmed its existence to the press. “I didn’t fucking breach it!” Cohen is said to have yelled, according to the Journal, sounding every bit like any concerned friend would.
Clifford has got her share of friends, too. Men and women of good conscience are coming forward to her aid. In a crowdfunding page she set up to help offset her legal fees, nearly 9,000 people have pledged close to $286,000 to support her cause — what she deems a quest “to speak honestly and openly to the American people about my relationship with now President Donald Trump and the intimidation and tactics used against me.” Perhaps to assuage concerned family men who may be worried her name may appear on their credit card statements, Clifford clarified that only the name of the crowdfunding site would appear: “There is no reference to Stormy Daniels or Stephanie Clifford.”
When all is said and done, Avenatti may even agree, if he hasn’t already, to do this pro bono. The media-friendly lawyer has become a celebrity of sorts since the scandal broke — late on Thursday, he teased his client’s upcoming cable appearance by tweeting out a mysterious image of a CD, as if to suggest that there’s documentary evidence of Trump’s tryst with Stormy. “If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is this worth?????” Avenatti wrote on Trump’s favorite medium. In a quick call with New York on Friday, Avenatti said Clifford’s 60 Minutes interview will help to dispel many misconceptions about the woman he represents. “I hope the American people will know a lot about my client,” he said. “How smart she is. How comfortable in her own skin she is. And how credible she is.” Unable to bury the story any longer, Trump may even tune in himself.
Stormy Daniels launches ‘Make America Horny Again Tour’
The Trophy Club in Greenville announced the appearance of the “Good Will Humping” and “Operation Dessert Stormy” star on social media, featuring a picture of the buxom bottle blonde in a cleavage-baring bikini top with the Stars and Stripes in the background.
“He saw her live. You can too,” reads one poster for the event on the club’s Facebook page, referring to Donald Trump’s alleged sexual encounter with the porn star.
A YouTube video promoted by the club calls her “The Twitter Storm Sensation” and said she will be visiting for a “one-night performance,” according to the Charleston City Paper.
Daniels, in a 2011 interview with In Touch magazine published Friday, said she hooked up with the future president in 2006 — while his third wife, Melania, was home tending to their infant son, Barron.
The Wall Street Journal revealed a week ago that Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid the star of about 150 porn flicks $130,000 in hush money to cover up the encounter.
Cohen and Daniels both denied the affair, as has the White House.
But she provided scads of steamy details in the In Touch interview, saying the pair had “textbook generic” sex, that Trump compared her to his daughter Ivanka and that she spanked him with a copy of Forbes magazine that featured Trump on the cover.
She also said she could identify the president’s “junk, if it came to that.”
Her appearance coincides with the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration.
Stormy Daniels' lawyer once again seeks to depose Donald Trump and Michael Cohen
Judge denies moti
on to depose Trump, Cohen 00:50
(CNN)Stormy Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, has once again filed a motion to depose President Donald Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to ask about a $130,000 payout before the 2016 election.
In the motion, filed in federal court in California on Sunday evening, Avenatti also asked for the production of documents on topics relating the agreement, which Daniels argues is not valid.
Daniels is also again seeking an expedited jury trial to determine the validity of the agreement.
Late last month, a federal judge in California put a temporary stop to Avenatti's initial motion for an expedited trial and discovery process. Judge S. James Otero of the US District Court for the Central District of California said Avenatti was "premature" in making the motion because Trump and Essential Consultants LLC, the company established by Cohen to pay Daniels the $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair between her and Trump, had not yet filed a petition to compel arbitration. That petition was filed last week.
In the legal filing Sunday, Avenatti requests a deposition of Trump of no more than two hours, a deposition of Cohen of no more than two hours and 10 requests for production of documents directed at Trump and Cohen.
Avenatti said the questions he wants to ask include whether Trump is "David Dennison" or "DD," as referenced in the agreement; whether Trump knew about the agreement; whether he "truly did not know about the $130,000 payment"; whether the payment was made with Trump's money; what was Cohen's role; and "was Mr. Trump personally in an effort to silence Plaintiff in order to benefit his presidential campaign by preventing voters from hearing Plaintiff speak publicly."
The motion is the latest in the legal battle between Daniels, an adult film actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Cohen, Trump, and the limited liability company Cohen created to pay her to keep quiet about the alleged affair with Trump more than a decade ago.
Daniels said she was pressed to sign the document, and her legal team now says the agreement is invalid because it was never signed by Trump. Cohen has argued it should be considered in force.
Late last month, Daniels' legal team amended her lawsuit to include a defamation claim against Cohen. Through White House officials, Trump continues to deny that he had an affair with Daniels.
On Thursday, Trump said he did not know about the $130,000 payment made to Daniels for her silence, his first public acknowledgment of the scandal surrounding the alleged sexual affair that has plagued him for months.
This National Enquirer Cover About Michael Cohen Is Amazing
Trump must be pissed.
The tabloid is among the national media outlets with the friendliest relationship with President Trump. A former top executive of the president’s casino business sits on the board of the tabloid’s parent company, American Media, Inc. The company’s chairman, David Pecker, is also long-time friend of Trump’s.
The National Enquirer, historically a celebrity gossip rag, has taken a markedly political turn in the age of Trump, devoting covers to the president’s successes and defending him against criticism. The cover taking aim at Michael Cohen, Trump’s long-time personal lawyer, represents a decided shift in spin for the tabloid.
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