Stormy Daniels claims in new lawsuit that her first lawyer betrayed her and became 'puppet' for Trump and Michael Cohen
- Porn star Stormy Daniels filed a new lawsuit in California on Wednesday.
- She alleged that her former attorney betrayed her and became a "puppet" for President Donald Trump and his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, while her attorney still represented her.
- The lawsuit contained alleged text messages between Cohen and Daniels's first attorney, Keith Davidson.
Porn star Stormy Daniels alleged in a lawsuit she filed Wednesday that her former attorney betrayed her and became a "puppet" for President Donald Trump and his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, while the attorney still represented her.
NBC News reported that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit alleged that Daniels's initial attorney, Keith Davidson, "hatched a plan" and "colluded" with Cohen to try and get her to appear on Fox News months ago and have her deny that she had a 2006 affair with the president.
Cohen facilitated a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels before the 2016 presidential election to keep her quiet about her allegations of an affair. Cohen is now the focus of a criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York into whether he violated campaign-finance laws or committed bank fraud.
Daniels was already suing Cohen and Trump in California, seeking to void that nondisclosure agreement, and last month filed a motion to revive that lawsuit.
Daniels's lawsuit features texts between Cohen and Davidson
The Wednesday lawsuit filed by Daniels includes text messages sent between Cohen and Davidson. In one, Cohen referred to Davidson as his "pal."
Daniels's new suit claims Trump was aware that Davidson and Cohen were in communication and coordinating for his benefit, which the lawsuit says was not known to her at the time. It also accuses Davidson of breaching attorney-client privilege and tipping off Cohen that Daniels was about to hire her new attorney, Michael Avenatti, and sue both Cohen and the president.
"Mr. Davidson abdicated his role as an advocate and fiduciary of his client Ms. Clifford and instead elected to be a puppet for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump in order to advance their interests at the expense of Ms. Clifford," the suit says.
Cohen and the White House have previously denied that Daniels and Trump had an affair.
Text messages included in the suit showed that Cohen and Davidson were in contact on January 17, the same day InTouch Magazine published a never-before-seen 2011 interview with Daniels in which she discussed her alleged affair with Trump.
"I have her tentatively scheduled for Hannity tonight," Cohen texted Davidson, referring to the Fox News host Sean Hannity. Davidson, according to the suit, responded that "she cannot don't [sic] today. She is flying to LA tomorrow. I'm trying to get her to commit for tomorrow."
The messages continued. Cohen seemed to become irked at the delay.
"By doing tomorrow you just create another news cycle instead of putting an end to this one," he wrote, according to the suit.
But Cohen then said that "the wise men" believed Daniels story was "dying" and that it wouldn't be "smart" for her to do interviews.
Davidson's response? "100%."
Cohen then said: "Thanks pal."
Daniels's suit alleges that the reference to "the wise men" included Trump.
Then in March, text messages included in the suit showed the two men discussing the lawsuit that Daniels would soon file against Cohen and Trump to void the nondisclosure agreement.
"This is a search for the truth and we will find it and expose it," Avenatti tweeted after the NBC News story went live.
An 'anything but traditional' relationship
Cohen and Davidson have worked together on similar agreements in the past.
They were involved in a non-disclosure agreement and $1.6 million payoff for Shera Bechard, a Playboy model who had an affair with a wealthy Republican financier. Bechard was represented by Davidson while the financier, Elliott Broidy utilized Cohen's services. Another former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, accused Cohen and Davidson of colluding with publisher American Media Inc., which publishes The National Enquirer, to bury her allegations of an affair with Trump.
Avenatti has taken aim at Davidson in recent months for his role in the hush money payment, releasing emails between Cohen and Davidson.
Last week, Avenatti published a pair of emails between Cohen and Davidson exchanged last month.
In one email, Cohen messaged Davidson just days after the FBI raids to say he "lost all my contacts as I had to get a new phone."
"Please send me all your contact info," Cohen wrote, adding, "Let me know how you want to communicate."
In the second email, which was sent from Cohen to Davidson in February, Cohen wrote that it is his "understanding that Ms. Clifford has or is seeking the advice of additional counsel regarding the above matter."
Cohen added that Davidson "under no circumstances should forward" certain information he described in the email to anyone without Cohen's written consent.
Mitchell Epner, a former assistant US attorney for the District of New Jersey and an attorney at Rottenberg Lipman Rich, told Business Insider that Davidson was "in a hell of a pickle."
"As an attorney, you have a duty to be a zealous advocate for your client, and if what's been alleged by Avenatti is true and Davidson and Cohen were colluding to sell out Stephanie Clifford to have Davidson pocket a very large sum, that is taking your law license in your hands," he said.
Davidson previously denied any insinuation of unethical or inappropriate behavior. An attorney must disclose any such conflict to a client.