US porn star sues Trump for "hush agreement" dispute

LOS ANGELES - Adult film star Stormy Daniels filed a lawsuit Tuesday against US President Donald Trump, seeking to invalidate a "hush agreement" she signed days before the 2016 presidential election, which prevented her from disclosing their "intimate" relationship.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that the agreement is "null and void and of no consequence" because Trump didn't personally sign it.

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges that she began an "intimate relationship" with Trump in 2006 and that it continued "well into the year 2007," according to the lawsuit.

Clifford said she wanted to disclose details of her relationship with Trump weeks before the 2016 election, thus Trump's attorney Michael Cohen signed a nondisclosure agreement with her on Oct 28, 2016.

Under the agreement, Clifford should not disclose any confidential information about Trump or his sexual partners or share any texts or photos from Trump. In return, $13,000 would be paid to her then attorney.

In order to hide the real source of the fund paid to Clifford, the lawsuit said, Trump and Cohen formed a company called Essential Consultant LLC on Oct 17, 2016, which was listed as co-defendants with Trump and Cohen in this case.

However, Cohen has said he paid the money out of his own pocket and "neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."

The lawsuit charges that the "hush agreement" is legally invalid because it was only signed by Clifford and Cohen, and further alleged that Cohen tried to force Clifford to sign a false statement this January saying that the reports about her relationship with Trump were false.

"To be clear, the attempts to intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and 'shut her up' in order to 'protect Mr. Trump' continue unabated," the lawsuit said.

Neither Cohen nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment Tuesday evening.