Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, renewed the motion to depose Trump and his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.
The filing states that Daniels would like to depose both Trump and Cohen for no more than two hours and seeks the production of documents from Trump and Cohen about the hush agreement Daniels signed barring her from talking about her alleged affair with Trump. Daniels is seeking to be released from the agreement through the lawsuit and argues that the agreement is invalid because Trump never signed it.
Avenatti initially filed the motion to depose Trump and Cohen late last month, but the judge ruled that the motion was premature. Now that Trump and Cohen have formally pushed for the lawsuit to be settled in private arbitration, Avenatti has resubmitted his motion to request depositions and document production.
Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 shortly before the election as part of her agreement not to talk about her alleged relationship with Trump. Cohen has insisted that he made the payment on his own, and Trump said last week that he was unaware of the payment. Avenatti likely wants more information on Trump’s knowledge of the agreement and payment from the depositions and document production.
