Adult film star Stormy Daniels filed another lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Monday — this time for defamation. The suit claims, “Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford.”
The claim references an April 18 tweet in which President Trump contested the existence of the man Daniels says threatened her in 2011, warning her not to go public with the details of her relationship with Trump.
A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)! https://t.co/9Is7mHBFda
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018
Daniels’ suit alleges that Trump’s tweet defamed her by suggesting that she was lying, but also effectively accused her of committing a crime — falsely reporting the crime that she maintains occurred when she was threatened.
Attorney Michael Avenatti wrote in the suit, “By calling the incident a ‘con job,’ Mr. Trump’s statement would be understood to state that Ms. Clifford was fabricating the crime and the existence of the assailant, both of which are prohibited under New York law, as well as the law of numerous other states.”
This lawsuit is in addition to the initial suit filed to contest the legality of a confidentiality agreement that was meant to bar Daniels from talking about the alleged affair.