Another day, another shot fired in the seemingly endless legal battle between the president and the porn star.On Monday, Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit in New York, alleging that President Trump defamed her when he tweeted that a forensic sketch of a man she says threatened her was a “total con job.” Daniels told reporters the man in the sketch approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 and warned her to stay silent about the affair she says she had with Trump in 2006.
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Trump’s tweet, Daniels’ lawsuit alleges, was “meant to convey that Ms. Clifford is a liar, someone who should not be trusted, that her claims about the threatening encounter are false, and that she was falsely accusing the individual depicted in the sketch of committing a crime, where no crime had been committed.”A spokesperson for the White House didn’t immediately respond to a VICE News request for comment, but the White House has previously denied Daniels’ allegations, and Trump insinuated to reporters earlier this month that he didn’t know Cohen had paid Daniels $130,000 a few weeks before the 2016.When reporters asked him then about the money, Trump replied, “You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.” Last week, however, in an interview with “Fox and Friends,” Trump said of Cohen, “He represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal.”Daniels sued Trump earlier this year, arguing that a non-disclosure agreement Daniels had signed about the alleged affair should be declared invalid, but that lawsuit is currently on hold in the wake of federal investigators’ raids on Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room earlier this month. Judge S. James Otero of the United States District Court in Los Angeles granted the defense’s request to postpone the case for 90 days on Friday, citing the “unique circumstances” of the case and investigation into Cohen.“This is no simple criminal investigation; it is an investigation into the personal attorney of a sitting President regarding documents that might be subject to the attorney-client privilege,” Otero wrote in his order. “Whether or not an indictment is forthcoming, and the Court thinks it likely based on these facts alone, these unique circumstances counsel in favor of stay.”On Twitter, Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti promised to appeal Otero’s decision sometime this week.
Cover image: Adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels hosts a Super Bowl party at Sapphire Las Vegas Gentlemen's Club on February 4, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ethan Miller/Getty Images