Stormy Daniels Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Trump

TOPSHOT - Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels speaks US Federal Court with her lawyer Michael Avenatti (R) on April 16, 2018, in Lower Manhattan, New York. President Donald Trump's per... TOPSHOT - Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels speaks US Federal Court with her lawyer Michael Avenatti (R) on April 16, 2018, in Lower Manhattan, New York. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen has been under criminal investigation for months over his business dealings, and FBI agents last week raided his home, hotel room, office, a safety deposit box and seized two cellphones. Some of the documents reportedly relate to payments to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims a one-night stand with Trump a decade ago, and ex Playboy model Karen McDougal who also claims an affair. / AFP PHOTO / EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ (Photo credit should read EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Porn actress Stormy Daniels on Monday filed a new lawsuit against President Donald Trump, accusing him of defamation for his response on Twitter to the release of a composite sketch of a man who allegedly threatened Daniels in 2011.

The new lawsuit takes issue with Trump’s tweet about Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, earlier in April. She and her lawyer released a composite sketch of the man Daniels claims threatened her to stay quiet about Trump in 2011. Trump said that the sketch depicted a “nonexistent man” and claimed that the release of the image was a “con job,” retweeting a message arguing that the sketch looked similar to Daniels’ husband.

“In making the statement, Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford,” Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, wrote in the complaint. “Mr. Trump knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world, as well as widely reported, and that Ms. Clifford would be subjected to threats of violence, economic harm, and reputational damage as a result.”

Daniels’ lawyer argued that Trump either knew his tweet was false or acted recklessly without knowing the truth and that Trump’s tweet caused Daniels to suffer damages including “harm to her reputation, emotional harm, exposure to contempt, ridicule, and shame, and physical threats of violence to her person and life.”

Daniels’ lawsuit against Trump filed at the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York is separate from her lawsuit against Trump and his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen filed in California.

In her original lawsuit, Daniels sued Trump seeking to be released from a nondisclosure agreement barring her from discussing her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. She charged that Trump did not sign the hush agreement, rendering it invalid. Daniels later added Cohen to that lawsuit, accusing him of defamation over his statement suggesting that she lied.

Read the complaint:

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