Cohen ‘Gamesmanship’ Slapped Down in Clifford Collusion Case
(Bloomberg) -- Adult movie actress Stephanie Clifford won a small but important legal ruling that may expedite her lawsuit alleging that her ex-lawyer colluded with Donald Trump's longtime attorney Michael Cohen.
In a suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in June, Clifford, who's known professionally as Stormy Daniels, alleged her former lawyer Keith Davidson “abdicated his role as an advocate” for her “and instead elected to be a puppet for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump.”
In 2016, Davidson negotiated Daniels's $130,000 “hush payment” from Cohen not to discuss a tryst she says she had with Trump a decade earlier. Cohen, who was also named as a defendant, got the case transferred to federal court in July.
In granting Clifford's request to move the case back to state court, U.S. District Judge James Otero said in an order late Thursday there had been “clear gamesmanship” in moving the suit to federal court in an attempt to gain a legal advantage.
Michael Avenatti, Clifford's lawyer, said the latest move “will allow us to proceed with discovery and a trial more expeditiously.”
“This is a blow to Michael Cohen,” Avenatti said in an email.
This suit followed a previous case Clifford filed against Trump and Cohen to get out from under the non-disclosure agreement. Cohen and Trump moved that case to federal court where a judge put it on hold because of an ongoing criminal investigation of Cohen.
Davidson “does not care where Ms. Clifford's lawsuit is heard,” said his lawyer, Paul Berra. “She received $130,000, told the country what happened, got a key to the city of West Hollywood, and now is reportedly going on Celebrity Big Brother. When is enough enough?”
Brent Blakely, a lawyer for Cohen, didn't respond to an email seeking comment on the ruling.
The case is Clifford v. Davidson, 18-cv-5052, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Los Angeles)
--With assistance from Chris Dolmetsch.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Los Angeles at pathurtado@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wollman
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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