Stormy Daniels claims collusion between her ex-lawyer and Michael Cohen in lawsuit
Stormy Daniels with her current lawyer, Michael Avenatti, in April 2018./JStone (Shutterstock.com.)
Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film actress who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump, has sued Michael Cohen—the president’s personal lawyer—and a lawyer who represented her in a 2016 non-disclosure agreement about the alleged relationship.
The suit was filed against Cohen and Keith M. Davidson in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the New York Times reports. The action alleges breach of fiduciary duty and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, arguing that Davidson and Cohen acted with malice. Unspecified punitive damages and at least $200,000 in damages are being sought, the Times reports.
It’s the third lawsuit that Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ current attorney, has filed regarding Trump and the non-disclosure agreement, according to the article.
The latest lawsuit states that Davidson and Cohen in January discussed Daniels possibly appearing on Sean Hannity’s television program to “falsely deny the accuracy” of an InTouch magazine article regarding her and the president.
Included as an exhibit with the lawsuit are texts between Davidson and Cohen, part of which discuss a January appearance for Daniels with the talk-show host. Initially, Cohen wants her to appear, but Davidson replies that she’s unavailable. After several texts from Cohen urging Davidson to call him, Cohen texts that the “wise men”—which the lawsuit claims includes Trump—think the story is dying, and Clifford should not do the interview.
“100%,” Davidson texts in response.
“Thanks pal,” Cohen responds, adding “just no interviews or statements unless through you.”
“Got it,” Davidson texted back, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also alleges that Davidson “secretly tipped off” Cohen about Daniels’ plans to hire another counsel and publicly disclose her relationship with the president, which resulted in Cohen initiating an arbitration proceeding to get a temporary restraining order against the porn actress, to “silence” her.
The exhibit includes texts between Cohen and Davidson from March 2, related to Davidson telling Cohen that Daniels would be filing a lawsuit against the president and his lawyer. Davidson never obtained Clifford’s permission to “engage in these discussions, or disclose any information” to Cohen, according to the complaint.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims Davidson has not returned the complete client file to Clifford, despite at least five demands, and he was involved in planting a false Wall Street Journal story that she was uncooperative with Southern District of New York investigators working on the Cohen investigation.
