By weighing in, Trump and Shah made Daniels’ antagonist the White House itself, rather than just Cohen, the lawyer who in January claimed that he alone, and not Trump, had just 10 days before the 2016 election paid the porn star $130,000 of his own money to buy her silence.
That repeated an already established pattern. Three weeks ago, Daniels and Avenatti filed a state lawsuit in Los Angeles seeking to void the October 2016 “hush agreement” that delivered the $130,000 to Daniels because Trump had failed to sign it. Rather than merely insisting on arbitration – as the original agreement stipulated – Cohen and Trump through their lawyers moved the case into federal court and asserted the right to sue Daniels for at least $20 million for violating the original deal.
Avenatti, when informed of the likely federal filing on March 15, could not believe his good fortune, offering at the time that it would be cause to pop open some champagne should it actually happen.
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