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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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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