A lawyer for the Trump Organization was involved in arbitration proceedings between Stephanie Clifford, the porn actress who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, and the company created by Trump attorney Michael Cohen to pay Clifford, according to documents first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Jill A. Martin is listed as counsel on a “demand for arbitration” document signed in February that claims a “breach of contract” by Peggy Petersen, the name used for Clifford in the “hush agreement” she allegedly agreed to with Cohen. The document, which was shared by Clifford’s lawyer with the Wall Street Journal, NBC News and CNN, links a lawyer for the Trump Organization to the “hush agreement” that bars Clifford from discussion her alleged intimate relationship with President Donald Trump.
Martin told the Wall Street Journal that she was representing Cohen’s company, Essential Consulting, LLC, “in her individual capacity” until the main lawyer on the arbitration received permission to practice in California.
The Trump Organization told NBC News that it had nothing to do with the arbitration.
“The Trump Organization is not representing anyone and, with the exception of one of its California-based attorneys in her individual capacity facilitating the initial filing pending the pro hac admission of Mr. Rosen, the company has had no involvement in the matter,” the company said in a statement.
Clifford allegedly had a sexual relationship with Trump that began back in 2006, and Clifford signed a non-disclosure agreement with Cohen in October 2016 that barred her from publicly discussing the alleged affair. Cohen paid her $130,000 through an LLC, and Trump has denied the affair and any involvement in the payment.
More than a year after she signed the agreement, Clifford is looking for ways to discuss her affair with Trump. She sued Trump, alleging that he never signed the hush agreement, rendering it invalid.
On the same day that Clifford sued Trump at the end of February, Cohen reportedly obtained a temporary restraining order against Clifford that bars her from discussing the matters laid out in the non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2016.
