US porn star Stormy Daniels liable for US$20 million in damages, says Donald Trump’s lawyer
Court filing said she had violated a non-disclosure agreement ‘at least’ 20 times
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Donald Trump’s lawyer has claimed porn actress Stormy Daniels is liable for at least US$20 million for violating a non-disclosure agreement she says prevents her from discussing an affair with the president, according to a Friday court filing.
A lawyer for Michael Cohen’s Essential Consultants limited liability company made the filing, which said that Daniels violated the agreement “at least” 20 times.
“The Settlement Agreement provides for liquidated damages of one million dollars [US$1,000,000] per instance of breach,” the court filing says.
Daniels signed the agreement, under which she was paid US$130,000, soon before the 2016 presidential election, leading to allegations that the payment amounted to an illicit contribution to Trump’s campaign.
Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, took to Twitter to criticise the court filing.
“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,” Avenatti wrote.
White House officials have tried to deflect questions about the alleged affair, pointing to previous denials by the Trump campaign.
The issue could hurt Trump with religious voters, who were key to his electoral success and appears to have already caused strains between the president and First Lady Melania Trump.
