Another day, another scandalous moment for Donald Trump. Adult-film star Stormy Daniels has filed a lawsuit against the president claiming that the nondisclosure agreement she signed regarding their relationship was invalid because it lacked Trump’s signature. Meanwhile, NBC News reports that Trump’s lawyer has recently tried to “intimidate” Daniels into stopping public discussion of her connection to Trump.
A few months ago, the news that Trump had had an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, leaked to the public. The two met at a celebrity golf tournament and entered an “intimate relationship” that lasted from 2006 to “well into the year 2007,” within the first few years of Trump’s marriage to First Lady Melania Trump.
Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit against Trump claiming a “hush agreement” was never binding because the president never signed it https://t.co/AR2wkl0jOH pic.twitter.com/rzMA8tlpHk
— POLITICO (@politico) March 7, 2018
As he was merely a public figure rather than the president at the time, Trump’s private dealings with Daniels weren’t widely acknowledged. Then, just a few days before the 2016 presidential election, Daniels was reportedly asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement stating that she would never speak of the affair. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, also gave her a large sum of money for previously undisclosed reasons. This was presumably to keep scandal out of Trump’s campaign run, but the “hush agreement” and “side letter argument” Daniels signed did not refer to Trump by name.
Instead, the hush agreement called the then-presidential candidate David Dennison, while it named Daniels as Peggy Peterson throughout the document. In the side letter agreement, David Dennison’s true identity was blacked out, but Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ own attorney, has confirmed that Dennison is Trump. Both Daniels and Cohen signed the documents, but Daniels has claimed that the spots meant for Trump were left blank. Her nondisclosure agreement lacking Trump’s signature would make the document’s term invalid.
Since details of her relationship with Trump hit the press, Daniels has talked about the nondisclosure agreement without actually saying anything too substantial. She even went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on the night of the State of the Union, but said little. Daniels did finally admit that she never approved the statement released and signed on her behalf that refuted the affair. She also implied that the statement’s signature was not her own.
Now, Daniels has filed a civil suit against Trump stating that, while she signed that nondisclosure agreement alongside his lawyer Cohen, Trump never signed it, making the agreement null and void. According to NBC News, she is using that agreement and the side letter agreement as Exhibits 1 and 2 in the suit. The agreement also explains that Daniels received $130,000 from Trump’s lawyer in exchange for not speaking about their relationship or his sexual partners to any outside source. Daniels’ lawsuit alleges that, as recently as Feb. 27 of this year, Cohen has actively tried to prevent Daniels from discussing her experience with Trump.
Speaking to TODAY on Wednesday morning, Daniels’ lawyer Avenatti confirmed that if their lawsuit is successful, Daniels would continue to share her encounters with the president. “She believes it’s important that the public learn the truth about what happened,” he said. “I think it’s time for her to tell her story and for the public to decide who is telling the truth.”
“Did she [Daniels] have a sexual relationship with the President?” –@savannahguthrie
“Yes.” – Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer pic.twitter.com/Io50QRPCvT
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 7, 2018
Beyond denying that the relationship had ever happened, Trump and the White House have yet to comment on the situation. In January, Cohen told NBC of Daniels, “These rumors have circulated time and again since 2011. President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels.”