Stormy Daniels attorney asks for arbitration push to be denied

The lawyer for adult-film star Stormy Daniels asked a judge on Monday to block a motion from President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, that would force Daniels to handle her dispute with Trump in arbitration rather than full court.

Reuters reports that Daniels’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, responded to a claim from an attorney representing Cohen that the $130,000 nondisclosure agreement signed by Daniels and Cohen contains a provision requiring any disputes be settled through arbitration.

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Avenatti argues this provision is invalid because the overall document does not contain the president’s signature, according to the news service.

“Thus, there never was an agreement to arbitrate,” he said.

In a court filing the day before, Avenatti added that the entire agreement was struck without Trump’s knowledge or consent, per the president’s own statements, and is thereby invalid.

“If Mr. Trump did not supply the funds or did not even know about the funds, this would be another relevant fact demonstrating that he never consented to the settlement agreement,” Avenatti said.

Trump addressed the controversy over Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006, for the first time last week. He told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had no knowledge of Cohen’s payment to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, which was made just days before the 2016 election.

Asked by reporters why Cohen made the payment to Daniels, Trump responded “you’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”

Cohen has battled questions about whether the $130,000 payment constituted a secret campaign donation to the Trump campaign, and violated the law.