Michael Cohen is seeking to dismiss Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit alleging that he “colluded” with her former attorney, Keith Davidson, to discredit her account of having an affair with President Trump.
In a motion filed Tuesday, Cohen’s attorneys argue that the U.S. Central District of California lacks jurisdiction as he neither lives nor works in the state.
Per Daniels’ June complaint, Davidson acted as a “puppet” for Cohen, communicating with him without her knowledge. The suit contained friendly text messages between the two men discussing an attempt to have the former adult film star appear on Fox News to deny her alleged 2006 sexual liaison with Trump.
Davidson subsequently filed a cross-complaint alleging that Cohen recorded their phone calls without his knowledge.
But Cohen’s attorneys say that the state lacks jurisdiction as there is no “connection between Cohen and the state of California.”
“Neither the Complaint nor the Crossclaim allege that Cohen was physically present in the state of California when he performed the acts allegedly arising to the claims therein,” the Tuesday filing states.
In previous filings, Cohen’s team has argued that the matters raised in this particular complaint overlap with other pending cases. Daniels brought a defamation suit against Trump in New York for publicly denying their affair. Federal prosecutors in New York are also looking into the $130,000 in hush money that Cohen paid to Daniels just before the 2016 election as part of a broader probe into Cohen’s financial dealings.
Cohen’s lawyers called the California suit a “blatant attempt at judge-shopping an forum shopping.” They also dismissed the collusion allegations as “a product of complete invention.”
Cohen this week suggested that he may be willing to flip on Trump and cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors
I doubt Cohen’s motion will succeed as his telephone communications, voice and text, with the California based attorney directly on the subject of the lawsuit, should be deemed sufficient minimum contacts with California for its long arm jurisdiction statute to give the California based court jurisdiction over Cohen.
Cohen’s spurious motion is a Hail Mary pass. California can easily assert jurisdiction. He’s desperate.
Huh. Cohen’s lawyers would appear to be in funds. I wonder from what source? And pretty combative. News that Cohen has jumped ship and become one of the good guys would appear to be premature, as many people here have already observed. If Cohen intended to flip to Mueller, it seems fairly likely that he could have reached an accommodation with Avenatti and flipped in the Daniels suit too, so to speak. Something along the lines of “I’ll admit to collusion but you need to drop all claims against me on and get off my back generally and aim your weapons at Trump exclusively and maybe even indemnify me against any action brought by Trump.”
Update: Thinking about this further, it occurs to me that Cohen can’t admit to colluding with Davidson, even if Avenatti agrees to drop all remedial claims, because that would land Cohen in disbarment difficulties of a terminal nature.
The federal venue statute specifically allows suit to be brought in a district where “any defendant is subject to the court’s personal jurisdiction with respect to such action.” There is no doubt that Davidson, a California attorney who is one of the defendants, is subject to personal jurisdiction in the Central District of California, where Davidson lives and practices law, based on the allegations in the complaint. Rule 11 sanctions might be appropriate.
Mikey, Mikey, Mikey, quit tilting at windmills about to slice you up, and flip already…