A judge rejected a request by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer to depose President Trump on the $130,000 ‘hush agreement’ she signed days before his election.
A federal judge in California on Thursday rejected a request by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer to depose President Trump on the $130,000 “hush agreement” she signed days before his 2016 election.
Judge S. James Otero said the court motion filed by Michael Avenatti, Daniels’ lawyer, was “premature” on procedural grounds because lawyers for Trump and Essential Consultants — a corporation set up by Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen to sign the agreement — have not yet filed an anticipated motion to compel arbitration.
“While EC and Mr. Trump have stated their intention to file a petition to compel arbitration, they have not yet done so,” Otero said in his ruling. “If such a petition were filed, a number of the questions raised in plaintiff’s motion may be answered in the petition, thus limiting the need” for a deposition.
Avenatti said he will refile his request to depose Trump after the arbitration petition is filed, which he said he expects “any day.”
Avenatti said the wording of Otero’s decision bodes well for his cause.
“Passages in the court’s order do not bode well for the defendants,” Avenatti tweeted. He said sections of the order “suggest that there is a strong likelihood that the court will ultimately agree with our requests for discovery and a trial.”
Daniels, 39, claims she had a sexual liaison with Trump, now 71, in 2006. She claims the “hush agreement” was designed to keep her from discussing their relationship.
Avenatti filed the suit against Trump three weeks ago, claiming the agreement was invalid because Trump never signed it and because it had no legal purpose.
“The Hush Agreement was entered with the legal aim, design and purpose of circumventing federal campaign finance law,” the filing states. The agreement also was invalid because it was “entered into for the purpose of covering up adulterous conduct, a crime in New York,Mr. Trump’s home state.”
The White House has repeatedly denied that Trump had an affair with Daniels. Cohen, who also has denied the affair on behalf of Trump, said he paid Daniels with his own money.
Daniels told 60 Minutes that a few weeks after she agreed in 2011 to tell the story of her tryst to In Touch magazine, she was in a parking lot with her infant daughter when a man walked up to her and told her to leave Trump alone. The man looked at her daughter and said “it would be a shame if something happened to her mom,” then disappeared, Daniels said.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said fear convinced her to accept the $130,000 payout for her silence from Cohen less than two weeks before Trump was elected.
The 60 Minutes interview led a lawyer for Trump’s personal counsel Cohen to demand that Daniels retract the “false and defamatory” statements.
