Keith Girard
Donald Trump has always surrounded himself with beautiful women. But who knew? He’s up to his eyeballs in porn stars, playmates and angry women. (Photo: IM Collage)
Donald Trump is up to his legal eyeballs in porn stars, playmates and angry women who say he groped, harassed and assaulted them. Trump likes to claim firsts. Well, no president in history has faced such an onslaught of sexual misconduct charges.
President Clinton had a consensual affair with a White House intern that never advanced beyond oral sex, and Republicans tried to impeach him. So where does that leave Trump?
So far, the president has been able to hold off his accusers by issuing flat-out denials, threatening lawsuits and making payoffs for silence. But all that is about to change.
Porn star Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, has painted Trump and his team of lawyers into a legal corner. She’s suing to get out of a bizarre non-disclosure agreement engineered by Trump’s long-time lawyer Michael Cohen.
Instead of letting her just tell her story and watch it disappear in the never ending news cycle, Trump’s legal machinations have kept the story in the headlines for weeks.
In the latest move, Trump has countersued her for $20 million for allegedly breaking the agreement. But that opened a whole new legal can of worms.
For the first time, he confirmed that a pseudonym, David Dennison, in the agreement is actually him. In effect, he handed Clifford’s wily lawyer, Michael Avenatti, a huge legal victory without firing a shot.
Now that Trump is inextricably linked to Daniel’s legal claim, he will be required at some point to sit for a legal deposition and answer questions.
Meanwhile, Playboy model Karen McDougal has sued American Media, publisher of The National Enquirer, to get out of a non-disclosure agreement with the publication.
She says she had an affair with Trump around the same time as Daniels. She told her story to The Enquirer with the understanding that it would be published.
But the tabloid, owned by Trump friend David Pecker, did something known in the tabloid industry as “catch and kill.” It paid McDougal $150,000 for her story, required her to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but never published it. Effectively, she was gagged.
McDougal’s 10-month relationship with the president leaked in May 2016. Another Playboy playmate spilled the beans on Twitter, touching off a media frenzy.
Now, she says in court papers, she was tricked into signing her agreement and wants out. If the case clears legal hurdles, Trump can also be compelled to testify under oath.
American Media’s lawyers have reportedly threatened her with legal action if she continues to talk.
Yet another of Trump’s legal headaches involves Summer Zervos, a former “Apprentice” contestant.
She scored a breakthrough in her defamation lawsuit against Trump this week. A New York court ruled that her case can move forward.
That allows her lawyers, Mariann Meier Wang and Gloria Allred, to depose the president and others about allegations Trump forcibly kissed and groped her.
Zervos is the only one of the three who was allegedly assaulted.
Trump allegedly kissed her against her will when she visited him at Trump Tower in December 2007, after she had left his show. He also allegedly kissed her, groped her breast and “began to press his genitals against her” when they met for dinner later that month in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, according to The Washington Post.
She’s suing because Trump called her a liar and a phony after she went public in Oct. 2016.
The other encounters were consensual.
In each case, the women are unlikely to accept any settlement short of allowing them to tell their stories, which appears to be happening with or without a legal resolution.
McDougal is scheduled to give an interview Thursday to CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Daniels is scheduled to appear on the CBS show “60 Minutes” on Sunday.