Lawyer: Trump doesn’t think Stormy Daniels’ deal is valid

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump does not believe porn actress Stormy Daniels’ hush-money deal, which his former personal lawyer said was done to influence the 2016 presidential election, is valid and will not carry out threats to sue her for breaking the agreement by discussing details of their alleged affair, Trump’s attorney said in a court filing Saturday.

FILE – In this April 16, 2018, file photo, adult film actress Stormy Daniels speaks outside federal court in New York. Daniels says her ex-lawyer was a “puppet” for President Donald Trump and worked with the president’s attorney to get her to appear on Fox News and falsely deny having sex with Trump. The allegations are made in a lawsuit filed June 6 in Los Angeles. The lawsuit alleges Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen “colluded” with Daniels’ then-attorney Keith Davidson to have her deny the relationship on Fox News after a tabloid magazine story about Daniels and Trump. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)

Hours earlier an attorney for the company set up to handle the deal offered to rescind Daniels’ nondisclosure agreement. The company, Essential Consultants, also scrapped a threatened $20 million lawsuit against Daniels.

The two developments could kill efforts by Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, to force the president to give sworn testimony about what he and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, might have known about the deal, if a judge agrees to now dismiss the case. The offers remove any legal risk to Daniels stemming from her public discussion of the alleged affair and the alleged efforts to hide it.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has said she had sex once with Trump in 2006 and carried on a platonic relationship with him for about a year. She was paid $130,000 as part of the agreement signed days before the 2016 election and is suing to dissolve the contract. Daniels has argued the agreement should be invalidated because Cohen signed it, but Trump did not.

In Saturday’s court filing, Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, said the president doesn’t dispute Daniels’ assertion that the contract isn’t valid and never considered himself as a party to the agreement. Both Trump and Cohen have asked Daniels to now drop her lawsuit.

Essential Consultants was set up by Cohen, who pleaded guilty in federal court last month to campaign-finance violations and other charges. Though Cohen originally denied having made a hush-money payment to Daniels on behalf of Trump, he told the court that he and Trump arranged payments to both Daniels and a former Playboy model to influence the election.

In addition to the offer to quash the agreement, Essential Consultants also agreed to back off its plan to fight Daniels in private arbitration and will not pursue a lawsuit against her, Brent Blakely, an attorney for the company, said in a letter to Daniels’ lawyer. Cohen had said that Daniels could owe $20 million for violating the agreement.

The company wants Daniels to repay the $130,000 she was paid, Blakely wrote.

Avenatti told The Associated Press that he did not have to accept the offer and would not settle the case without deposing Trump and Cohen. He said he was still reviewing his options but wasn’t worried about the developments.

Avenatti said he thought Harder’s court filing was “worthless,” had “numerous problems” and “means nothing.”

“We are tired of the constant delays and games being played,” he said. “We want these depositions as soon as possible.”

Regardless of how a court views the offer by Trump and Cohen’s company to drop efforts to enforce the agreement, Avenatti has other possible legal routes to pursue the president. Daniels is also suing Trump and Cohen for defamation.

By MICHAEL BALSAMO and CATHERINE LUCEY

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