U.S. porn star sues Trump for “hush agreement” dispute

LOS ANGELES, March 8 (Xinhua) — Adult film star Stormy Daniels filed a
lawsuit Tuesday against U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to invalidate
a “hush agreement” she signed days before the 2016 presidential election,
which prevented her from disclosing their “intimate” relationship.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that the
agreement is “null and void and of no consequence” because Trump didn’t
personally sign it.   Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie
Clifford, alleges that she began an “intimate relationship” with Trump in
2006 and that it continued “well into the year 2007,” according to the
lawsuit.   Clifford said she wanted to disclose details of her relationship
with Trump weeks before the 2016 election, thus Trump’s attorney Michael
Cohen signed a nondisclosure agreement with her on Oct. 28, 2016.  Under
the agreement, Clifford should not disclose any confidential information
about Trump or his sexual partners or share any texts or photos from Trump.
In return, 13,000 U.S. dollars would be paid to her then attorney.

In order to hide the real source of the fund paid to Clifford, the lawsuit
said, Trump and Cohen formed a company called Essential Consultant LLC on
Oct. 17, 2016, which was listed as co-defendants with Trump and Cohen in
this case.  However, Cohen has said he paid the money out of his own pocket
and “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.”  The lawsuit charges that the
“hush agreement” is legally invalid because it was only signed by Clifford
and Cohen, and further alleged that Cohen tried to force Clifford to sign a
false statement this January saying that the reports about her relationship
with Trump were false.  “To be clear, the attempts to intimidate Ms.
Clifford into silence and ‘shut her up’ in order to ‘protect Mr. Trump’
continue unabated,” the lawsuit said.     Neither Cohen nor the White House
immediately responded to requests for comment Tuesday evening.