Adult film star Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit against her former lawyer, Keith Davidson, saying he colluded with President Donald Trump'...
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| Adult film star Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit against her former lawyer, Keith Davidson, saying he colluded with President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen while representing her. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo |
By Daniel Uria, UPI
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit against her former lawyer Tuesday, accusing him of colluding with President Donald Trump's personal lawyer while representing her.
The suit, filed in California State Court, accused attorney Keith Davidson of violating lawyer-client privilege by colluding with Trump's attorney Michael Cohen while working for Daniels, born Stephanie Clifford. She said Davidson withheld relevant communications from her current lawyer, Michael Avenatti.
"Mr. Davidson abdicated his role as an advocate and fiduciary of his client Ms. Clifford, and instead elected to be a 'puppet' for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump in order to advance their interests at the expense of Ms. Clifford," the complaint states.
The suit alleges Cohen and Davidson colluded to encourage Daniels to appear on Fox News in January and make a false claim denying she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. The White House and Cohen have denied the affair ever occurred.
Alleged text messages between Cohen and Davidson from Jan. 17 included in the suit feature the two men planning to set up the television appearance after In Touch magazine published excerpts of a 2011 interview with Daniels about the affair.
"I have her tentatively scheduled for Hannity tonight," Cohen wrote in one text.
Davidson responded that Daniels would be unable to make the appearance due to a flight to Los Angeles. Cohen then repeatedly messaged Davidson and said it would be necessary to conduct the interview that day to put an end to the news cycle surrounding the story.
After about 2 hours, Cohen texted Davidson to inform him a group of "wise men" -- which the suit alleges included Trump -- decided not to have Daniels appear on the program.
"The wise men all believe the story is dying and don't think it's smart for her to do any interviews," Cohen wrote.
Davidson then affirmed the decision to which Cohen replied, "Thanks pal."
Dave Wedge, a spokesman for Davidson, said the suit was "outrageously frivolous" and constituted "a full and complete waiver of the attorney-client privilege."
"Thankfully, the truth can now finally come out to rebut the false narrative about attorney Davidson that Mr. Avenatti has been pushing in his more than 175 television appearances and countless other media interviews. Attorney Davidson believes that the American people deserve to know the entire truth -- and they soon will. This lawsuit has made that happen," Wedge said.
The suit also includes text messages from March in which Davidson allegedly attempted to inform Cohen that Daniels intended to file a lawsuit against him to invalidate a non-disclosure agreement about the lawsuit. Cohen responded to the message saying he was unable to call Davidson because he was with first lady Melania Trump.
"These text messages show that the prior denials by Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen relating to what Mr. Trump knew and about the honesty of my client were absolute lies," Avenatti said. "There was a significant cover-up here as part of an attempt to deceive the American people and Mrs. Trump and we intend on getting to the bottom of it."
Daniels filed a separate lawsuit on March 6, to nullify a hush agreement to not speak publicly about the affair for which Cohen paid her $130,000.
Since then Cohen has filed separate defamation suits against Trump over a tweet dismissing a composite sketch of a man who allegedly threatened her and Cohen for denying she had an affair with Trump.
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