Stormy Daniels' lawyer seeks Trump testimony

A lawyer for adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels filed a motion in a California court on Wednesday to take a deposition from President Donald Trump in a legal battle over an agreement to keep the porn star quiet about her allegation that they had a sexual relationship.

Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti said he wanted sworn testimony from Trump about the "hush" agreement she says she signed. He also sought a legal interview with the President's lawyer, the US media reported on Wednesday.

Daniels alleged she had unprotected sex with Trump in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump. However, he denies it. She said she signed an agreement to keep quiet about her claims in exchange for $130,000 of "hush" money in October 2016, days before the presidential election.

In the court documents, Avenatti said he wanted to take a deposition from Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen for "no more than two hours each". The lawyer said his aim was to establish if Trump consented to the agreement, the Washington Post reported.

However, Cohen claimed the money he offered to Daniels was from his own funds and was done without the knowledge of the President.

Daniels previously offered to give back the money she got from Trump's lawyer in exchange for the right to publish "any text messages, photos and/or videos" she had relating to the President.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, originally sued Trump on March 6, saying he had never put his signature on a $130,000 agreement for her to stay silent about what she called their "intimate" relationship, which she said occurred in 2006 and 2007.

On Monday, after Daniels appeared in a widely watched TV interview on 60 Minutes on CBS, Avenatti filed an amended lawsuit claiming that Cohen had defamed his client by suggesting she was a liar and also said that the non-disclosure agreement was "invalid" because Trump did not sign it.

Daniels said in the interview that she was threatened by an unidentified man she believed to be linked to Trump.

Trump is also being sued by Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump around the same time as Daniels, and Summer Zervos, an Apprentice contestant who accused the billionaire of sexual harassment and is suing for defamation.

--IANS

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