Trump Seeking $20 Million In Damages From Stormy Daniels
Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, is being sued by Donald Trump for $20 million in damages. That means she’s being sued $1 million for each time she supposedly violated her nondisclosure agreement. According to the New York Times, the agreement included a clause for “liquidated damages” of $1 million for each violation.
Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, is also requesting the case be taken to federal court. He is basing this on the premise that the lawsuit is for over $75,000, which means that the case should be passed on to the federal court system. AP News detailed that Daniel’s lawyer believes the ultimate goal is to settle the case in private arbitration. Settling this in private arbitration would mean that the issue would be resolved privately, instead of in a courtroom.
Daniel admits to taking a $130,000 payment from Cohen to stay silent but now wants to pay it back in order to break free from her nondisclosure agreement. On March 7, her lawyer Michael Avenatti sued Trump over the agreement, claiming that it is null since Trump never signed it. The BBC also reported that Avenatti claims there have been attempts to “intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and ‘shut her up’ in order to ‘protect Mr. Trump.'”
After hearing about the multi-million-dollar lawsuit, Avenatti fired at the president through his Twitter account and accused him of contradicting himself.
How can President Donald Trump seek $20 million in damages against my client based on an agreement that he and Mr. Cohen claim Mr. Trump never was a party to and knew nothing about? #notwellthoughtout #sloppy #checkmate
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 17, 2018
The fact that a sitting president is pursuing over $20M in bogus 'damages' against a private citizen, who is only trying to tell the public what really happened, is remarkable. Likely unprecedented in our history. We are NOT going away and we will NOT be intimidated. #basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 17, 2018
While Trump “vehemently denies” any affair with Daniels, she says that she was in a year-long relationship with him starting in 2006. Things became more complicated when she signed a nondisclosure agreement before the presidential election. This forbade her from speaking out about her prior relationship with Trump.
One can only speculate if the presidential race would have had a different outcome had Daniels never signed a nondisclosure agreement. Meanwhile, the hush money that Daniels received before the election has come under scrutiny. The Washington Post reported that the $130,000 came directly from Cohen’s home equity line. However, that alone is not an indication of a legitimate payment.
Melania Trump, in the meantime, has been keeping quiet about her position on the matter. ABC News mentioned that Mrs. Trump has also been out of the public eye, only emerging to advocate for the end of cyberbullying.
