By now, we’ve seen the elaborate lengths to which Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, has gone to keep Stormy Daniels from revealing the dirty details about her alleged yearlong affair with Trump. He arranged for the porn star to get $130,000 in return for her silence. However, the manner in which that payment was arranged has raised questions about how much the Trump camp, and Trump himself, knew.
But now that Daniels claims on several grounds that the agreement is no longer valid, Cohen has mounted a full-court press to keep her quiet. But it may not matter–and we may have Cohen himself to thank for it. Thanks to a lawsuit Cohen filed against BuzzFeed for its role in publishing a dossier that supposedly details how Russia reportedly compromised Trump, Daniels may be free to tell all.
For those who don’t know, Cohen sued BuzzFeed for defamation in January, contending that the “golden showers” dossier is bogus.
Enough is enough of the #fake #RussianDossier. Just filed a defamation action against @BuzzFeedNews for publishing the lie filled document on @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and me!
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 10, 2018
Cohen contends that the “lie-filled dossier” has damaged both his personal and professional reputation.
Never mind that key portions of the dossier have been independently corroborated by American intelligence. Never mind that a number of other Western intelligence agencies believe that the investigator who compiled it, former UK intelligence agent Christopher Steele, was on to something.
Now how does this relate to Daniels? Well, on Wednesday, BuzzFeed’s lawyers asked Daniels–whose real name is Stephanie Clifford–to preserve various categories of “documents and electronically stored information” related to her interactions with Cohen and Trump. Buzzfeed’s lawyers told Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, that “any payments (Cohen) made or facilitated to third parties during or in relation to” the 2016 presidential campaign have direct bearing on the suit.
To that end, BuzzFeed asked Daniels to preserve all information related to money Daniels received from Cohen and the dummy LLC he created to pay her just before Election Day 2016, as well as records of all interactions between Daniels, Cohen, or anyone acting on Cohen’s behalf. But crucially, BuzzFeed also wants Daniels to preserve “any and all documents or communications about any relationship and/or sexual encounter(s) Ms. Clifford had and/or was alleged to have had, with President Trump.”
Now why does this matter? Well, such document preservation requests are usually a prelude to a subpoena. Legal experts told Politico that if Daniels has to give a deposition, she will be able to reveal the full details about her relationship with Trump, notwithstanding the non-disclosure agreement.
More seriously, Daniels could potentially reveal more about Trump’s involvement in the payment. There is already a lot to suggest that Cohen is blowing smoke when he claims that Trump wasn’t involved. Not only did he use his Trump Organization email in the negotiations, but at least one other Trump Organization lawyer was involved in getting a restraining order on Daniels. Moreover, under New York state bar rules, Cohen was required to keep Trump informed about this matter.
Those details are by themselves enough to place this situation firmly in “what did Trump know, and when did he know it?” territory. But Daniels could potentially shed more light on whether this payment was intended as a campaign contribution from Cohen–one that would be far above the maximum limit for an individual donor.
BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Rosenthal argues that since Cohen claims his reputation has been damaged, BuzzFeed has every right to delve into “Mr. Cohen’s personal reputation, and his actions on Donald Trump’s behalf.” Not surprisingly, Cohen’s lawyer, David Schwartz, wants “a very narrow view of discovery,” and plans to contest any attempt to plumb Cohen’s interactions with Daniels.
So in his effort to shake BuzzFeed, Cohen may very well have opened the door for Daniels to tell all–thus making all of his efforts to silence her go for naught.
(featured image courtesy Marco Verch, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)
