Judge Denies Stormy Daniels’ Motion To Depose Trump And Cohen

on January 16, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 16: Adult film actress Stormy Daniels attends the 2014 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 16, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A California judge on Thursday denied Stormy Daniels’ request to depose President Donald Trump and his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for her lawsuit arguing that the hush agreement barring her from discussing her alleged relationship with Trump is invalid.

In the ruling, the judge wrote that Daniels’ motion to depose Trump and Cohen was “premature,” suggesting that her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, could refile the motion at a later date. The judge wrote that Daniels cannot seek to depose Trump and Cohen until Cohen files a petition to move the case to arbitration. Lawyers representing Trump and Cohen have said that they will push to move the case to private arbitration, but have not yet submitted the filing.

Avenatti said that he will refile his motion to depose Trump and Cohen after they file their petition to move to arbitration.

Though Avenatti will have to wait to refile the motion to depose Trump and Cohen and to hold a jury trial, he told CNN that the language in the ruling was encouraging.

“We’re very, very encouraged by language in the order not just suggesting, but basically finding, that we’re correct in the application of the law and the facts to this matter. This does not bode well for the President or Mr. Cohen, and all indications are that when this motion is heard on the merits, we’re going to get the discovery and we’re going to get the trial we’ve asked for,” he said.

In the ruling, the judge noted that Daniels is allowed to ask for a jury trial, but said that a petition to compel arbitration must come first and that the petition may answer some questions that Daniels seeks to find through discovery.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Does this imply a negative outlook for her lawsuit?

  2. Activate the Popehat signal - I need a lawsplainer.

    I sort of assumed a deposition was almost automatically forthcoming. Why isn’t it?

  3. This is outrageous. The quality of her motions has never been questioned before.

  4. Not a big deal, actually.

    The denial is “without prejudice,” which means they can renew the motion later.

    And the reason for the denial is that they made the motion too soon. Cohen/Trump haven’t filed their own petition to compel arbitration yet, and Stormy’s motion deals with issues that technically aren’t before the court until that petition is filed.

    So it was a bit of a stunt on Avenatti’s part, but no harm no foul. They’ll be back again soon enough, assuming the petition to compel arbitration gets filed, and then they’ll get a hearing on the merits.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

87 more replies

Participants

Avatar for valgalky23 Avatar for someguy Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for dont Avatar for sparrowhawk Avatar for joelopines Avatar for stradivarius50t3 Avatar for esteban Avatar for ignoreland Avatar for dangoodbar Avatar for thomasmatthew Avatar for pshah Avatar for tena Avatar for junebug Avatar for spencersmom Avatar for tiowally Avatar for j.dave Avatar for judygran Avatar for socalista Avatar for erik_t Avatar for mushr00m1e Avatar for coffae Avatar for c_stedman Avatar for plukasiak

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: