Stormy Daniels Escalates Lawsuit Against Trump to Accuse Michael Cohen of Defamation

The legal battle is ramping up.

Patrick Fallon/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

One day after appearing on national television to discuss intimate details of her alleged sexual relationship with President Donald Trump, Stormy Daniels has expanded her ongoing lawsuit against Trump to include a defamation case against the president’s personal lawyer.

The lawsuit was amended Monday to accuse Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, of defamation for suggesting that she is lying about the affair, pointing to a February statement in which Cohen discussed the mounting controversy over the alleged tryst. “Just because something isn’t true,” Cohen said, “doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage.” Daniels now claims that the statement wrongly implies that she was “not being truthful in claiming she had an intimate relationship with Mr. Trump.”

The new legal challenge comes hours after Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti appeared on several morning news shows to say that Daniels possessed a trove of evidence that could prove that she had a sexual relationship with Trump. Avenatti also reiterated the argument that Daniels’ case was not just about sex—and that Trump and Cohen’s attempt to bury the affair demonstrated a potential violation of campaign contribution laws. 

When asked about the possibility that Trump may have violated such laws, Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah on Monday said that the White House did nothing wrong. He could not, however, speak on behalf of the campaign or Trump Organization. Meanwhile, Cohen sent Daniels a cease and desist letter on Sunday demanding she retracts her claims.

The case against Cohen is similar to a defamation case against Trump filed by Summer Zervos, who is arguing that the president disparaged her by calling her a liar after she went public with the allegation Trump groped her in 2007. Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed Trump’s attempt to squash the lawsuit, declaring that no one is above the law.

 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate