TRUMP CLAIMS STORMY BENEFITED FROM HIM CALLING HER A LIAR

EXCLUSIVE: Trump demands court DISMISS Stormy Daniels's defamation lawsuit against him saying First Amendment lets him call her a liar - and he's made her RICHER

By Karen Ruiz

Daily Mail
August 28, 2018

President Trump is demanding a judge toss out Stormy Daniels's defamation suit against him claiming he is protected by free speech, DailyMail.com can reveal.

In a motion to dismiss filed on Monday, the president argues that his April 2018 tweet, in which he branded Daniels a liar after she alleged she was threatened by man on his behalf, is his 'protected opinion.'

He has also claimed that the porn star, 39, has not suffered any damages from his comments and that she has actually 'capitalized' on the dispute.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, Daniels's attorney Michael Avenatti called the motion 'as baseless as Trump's comments about Senator McCain.'

The suit states: 'Politicians, in the course of public debate, are entitled to enter the debate and express their beliefs, including their disbeliefs, of the claims of their adversaries.'

The documents go on to say that Trump's comments about Daniels are no different to when he has 'expressed his opinions regarding multiple adversaries, sometimes referring to his opponents by colorful names such as "Lyin' Ted" and "Crooked Hillary."'

'A defamation standard that turns typical political rhetoric into actionable defamation would chill expression that is central to the First Amendment and political speech,' the suit states.

Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, filed the suit in April claiming Trump's comment was defamatory because it accused her of a serious crime: 'that she falsely accused an individual of threatening her.'

In the new filing, Trump attorney Charles J Harder fired back saying that merely stating that someone has made a false statement does not count as defamation.

He also slammed Daniels stating 'there is nothing about Plaintiff's career as an adult entertainer that requires a reputation for honesty.'

The lawsuit is only a part of the ongoing saga between Trump and Daniels, who claimed she was paid $135,000 in hush money by attorney Michael Cohen before the election to stop her airing her claims of sex with the then presidential candidate in 2006.

Daniels appeared on an April episode of The View to show the sketch of a man she says threatened her in 2011 to stay silent after she tried to sell her story then.

She claimed she was with her young daughter when the mystery man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot saying: 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.'

Daniels said: 'Then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, "That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom." And then he was gone.'

Trump later weighed in on the claims on Twitter, mocking the courtroom artist's sketch and saying: 'A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!'

The president also retweeted a side-by-side comparison of the pencil sketch with a photo of Daniels' husband Glendon Crain, a fellow adult film star who had the porn name Brendon Miller, and a former heavy metal drummer.

In the new motion, Harder also argued that Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti have 'publicly attacked' the president in more than 140 television news appearances in the past five months.

He also claims Daniels is unable to prove that she suffered any damages as a result of the tweet and argues that the porn star has actually 'capitalized on her dispute with the President, embarking on a nationwide tour of adult live entertainment venues (a.k.a., strip clubs) for which she admittedly is being paid at least four times her normal appearance fee because of her public controversy with the President.'

'This suit [...] is nothing more than a public relations move by Plaintiff and her outspoken lawyer to obtain still more publicity and attention.

'This suit improperly injects the United States courts into what is effectively a public debate involving a major politician and one (or two) of his public antagonists.

'This suit is designed to chill the President's free speech rights on matters of public concern.'