April 30, 2018

Trump’s Tweet About Stormy Daniels Backfired, and Now She’s Suing for Defamation

Read the lawsuit here.

Olivier Doulier/ZUMA

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Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who claims she had a sexual relationship with President Donald Trump, filed a new lawsuit Monday accusing the president of making false statements that “denigrate and attack” her character. 

The lawsuit specifically cites an April 18 tweet in which Trump referred to Daniels’ previous claims that a man physically threatened her in 2011 to stop her from publicly discussing her affair with Trump. In the tweet, Trump called those allegations a “total con job.” According to the lawsuit, Trump’s tweet attempted to portray Daniels as a “liar.” Daniels is already seeking a similar defamation judgment against Michael Cohen, the president’s longtime personal lawyer who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her from publicly discussing the affair.

“Mr. Trump’s defamatory statement was false because Ms. Clifford was in fact threatened in 2011 as she has recounted and the sketch was the result of her recollection regarding the appearance of the assailant,” the lawsuit states. The suit argues that Trump’s tweet exposed Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, to “hatred, contempt, ridicule, and shame.”

The lawsuit adds to an ongoing legal challenge by Daniels that seeks to release her from a legal agreement preventing her from publicly discussing her alleged sexual relationship with Trump. ABC News reports that the Trump campaign has spent $228,000 to pay for some of Cohen’s legal fees, an arrangement that could violate campaign finance laws. Earlier this month, the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office, and hotel room and seized documents, some of which related to Cohen’s $130,000 payment to keep Daniels from speaking out about the affair.

The complaint filed Monday is below.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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