In what Donald Trump’s lawyers are hailing as victory, the federal judge presiding in Stormy Daniels lawsuit over the “hush money” deal she signed with Donald Trump just before the 2016 presidential election agreed this week to let her drop part of the case: her defamation claim against Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen.
Daniels sued Trump and Cohen in March of last year, seeking to be released from the $130,000 non-disclosure agreement that was designed to silence Daniels about a 2006 sexual encounter she had with Trump. When Cohen later made public statements denying that the sexual episode took place, Daniels sued him for defamation, saying that he was calling her a liar, according to a CNN report.
“The Court already stated we received everything we asked for because Cohen and Trump were forced to admit we were right all along," Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti told CNN.
But Judge S. James Otero dismissed Daniels’ claim against Cohen “with prejudice,” meaning that she is not allowed to refile the defamation claim—an outcome that led to gloating by Cohen’s lawyer, Brent Blakely.
“Rather than fighting in court, Ms. Daniels and her attorney instead chose to abandon the case—the legal equivalent of running away,” said Blakely in a statement quoted by The Washington Post. “When a plaintiff’s claim has been dismissed ‘with prejudice,’ the defendant, in this case Mr. Cohen, is the prevailing party. No amount of spin on behalf of Ms. Daniels or her attorney can alter this result.”
Both Cohen and Trump have changed their stories regarding the $130,000 payment. While neither has publicly conceded that the sexual encounter took place, Cohen admitted making the $130,000 payment to Daniels after initial denials, while Trump first denied knowing about the payment, but later acknowledged that he did. Cohen later testified that Trump “directed” him every step of the way in arranging the hush money payoff.
Writing on his Twitter account Tuesday, Avenatti disputed Blakely’s claim of victory in the defamation claim dismissal.
“A lot of misreporting going on relating to the recent decision. The Court sided with Stormy against Cohen on the motion,” Avenatti wrote. “We did not lose anything. We won the motion and Cohen lost across the board. The NDA case continues and the likelihood of large [attorney’s] fees for Stormy is high.”
Cohen was scheduled to testify Friday before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session. But on Wednesday, the committee’s chair, Adam Schiff, said that Cohen’s testimony would be postponed. About an hour after Schiff’s announcement, Russia investigation Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a sealed document in the case U.S.A. v. Cohen with a court, but the contents of that document remain unknown.
Photo by Showtime 'The Circus'/Wikimedia Commons
