LOS ANGELES — Stormy Daniels today sued President Trump’s personal lawyer for defamation, saying in a court filing that Michael Cohen portrayed her as having lied about an alleged sexual encounter with the president.
Daniels added Cohen to her pending lawsuit against Trump in a filing in federal court in Los Angeles.
In the suit, Daniels is seeking to extricate herself from an October 2016 NDA she had reached with Cohen.
Published reports said that Cohen paid her $130,000 in exchange for keeping quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump that took place 12 years ago.
According to the defamation claim, Cohen acknowledged the existence of the agreement with Daniels and said he had used his own funds.
Cohen added at the time, “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump.”
Daniels, in her claims against Cohen, said that he conveyed she is a liar — “someone who should not be trusted, and that her claims about her relationship with Mr. Trump is ‘something [that] isn’t true,’” according to the complaint.
An attorney for Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that the claim is “frivolous and ridiculous.”
“The only person that’s been slandered or defamed is Michael Cohen,” said David Schwartz, the lawyer for Cohen.
At a briefing with reporters, spokesman Raj Shah said the White House disputed claims made in last night’s CBS “60 Minutes” interview that Daniels had a sexual encounter with Trump.
“The president doesn’t believe any of the claims Daniels made in the interview last night were accurate,” Shah said. “There’s nothing to corroborate her claim.”
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