Stormy Daniels a porn star in the US is suing President Donald Trump on Tuesday for declaring a “hush agreement” over their alleged affair as an invalid contract because he never signed it reports say.
Michael Avenatti a Los Angeles lawyer tweeted what appears to be a copy of the suit filed on behalf of the porn star, real name Stephanie Clifford.
In the document he writes that the hush agreement never existed, “because, among other things, Mr Trump never signed” the document with a Superior Court of California stamp, the suit says.
It reports that she had a close relationship with Donald during 2006 and 2007, which she sought to expose after Trump won the Republican Party nomination for president and other women had come out to claim they had had sexual encounters with him.
Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, helped to quell these statements “aggressively… silence Ms Clifford as part of an effort to avoid her telling the truth, thus helping to ensure he won the presidential election,” the document says.
Around that time Cohen prepared a non-disclosure agreement, a copy of which is attached to the lawsuit, which required a $130,000 payment to be wired from a company known as Essential Consultants LLC to Clifford in return for her discretion, according to the documents.
Using the aliases Peggy Peterson and David Dennison, Clifford and Trump respectively were to sign the agreement, along with Essential Consultants.
Just Days before the November 2016 presidential election that Trump won, Clifford signed off on the document, so did Cohen for Essential Consultants, it says.
“Mr. Trump, however, did not sign the agreement, thus rendering it legally null and void and of no consequence,” the document adds.
Cohen told US media last month that he paid Clifford $130,000, prompting her manager to suggest a non-disclosure agreement had been broken.
Cohen declined to give details such as why he made the payment, or if Trump was aware of it at the time.
“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said, according to the New York Times.
Trump declined to comment on the issue. The White House has dodged questions about whether allegations of an affair are true.
Cohen’s comments only emerged after a watchdog group Common Cause filed a federal complaint in January saying that the payout may have violated campaign finance rules.