Pornstar Stormy Daniels describes lurid details of her first meeting with Trump, sues his lawyer

Stormy Daniels, the porn star who alleges of having an affair with Donald Trump, has filed a lawsuit for defamation against the US President's personal attorney Michael Cohen, the media reported.

The suit, filed on Monday by her lawyer Michael Avenatti in California, comes after CBS News aired a tell-all interview with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, regarding the affair more than a decade ago, and which the White House continues to deny, reports CNN.

Saucy and hitherto unrevealed details of Trump’s first encounter with Daniels in 2006 were made public by the adult movie actress during the interview on news broadcaster CBS’ 60 Minutes programme.

Daniels recalled during her interview with news anchor Anderson Cooper that she was threatened in a parking lot in Las Vegas in 2011, when she was in touch with a local magazine to make the details of her sexual encounter public for $15,000.

Daniels recalled, “A guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.’”

Daniels told CBS that the man “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.” The episode happened after a defamation threat by Cohen to the magazine, following which the Daniel’s version wasn’t carried in the publication.

In the beginning of the interview, Daniels vividly described her first meeting with Trump, saying that she wasn’t interested in having sex with the US President.

“… he turned around and pulled his pants down a little -- you know had underwear on and stuff and I just gave him a couple swats,” she said, while mentioning how she gently spanked Trump with a magazine which had him on the cover, in the lead-up to them having sex.

The White House denies that Trump had sexual relations with Daniels.

Daniels’ CBS interview attracted 22 million views, making it the most-watched 60 Minutes episode since a 2008 broadcast which featured former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Trump, who had denied Daniels’ allegations, has billed her version of events as “fake news.”

According to Michael Avenatti, Trump is claiming $20 million in damages from the actress.

Daniels and Cohen had also signed a non-disclosure agreement 11 days ahead of the presidential vote in 2016, under which Trump bought the adult actress’ silence for $130,000. Daniels is accusing Trump’s attorney of violating the pact by making public some of its details in an interview to The New York Times earlier this year.

A former head of America’s Election Commission, who also featured in 60 Minutes, said that the payout was in direct violation of America’s election laws and Trump could possibly be tried for it.

“It's a $130,000 in-kind contribution by Cohen to the Trump campaign, which is about $126,500 above what he's allowed to give. And if he does this on behalf of his client, the candidate, that is a coordinated, illegal, in-kind contribution by Cohen for the purpose of influencing the election, of benefiting the candidate by keeping this secret,” former head of Federal Election Commission, Trevor Potter, told CBS.

The latest legal charges against Cohen is an additional move in an ongoing suit by Daniels against Cohen, Trump and the limited liability company Cohen has said he established to facilitate a payment to Daniels ahead of the presidential election.

Cohen has denied Daniels' claims but admitted to making the payment. The additional claim that Daniels filed on Monday states that Cohen's denial is a defamatory statement.

"It was reasonably understood Cohen meant to convey that Clifford is a liar," the complaint reads.

Avenatti added: "Cohen made the statement knowing it was false or had serious doubts about the truth of the statements."

Daniels' story came to light in a Wall Street Journal article earlier this year, and the ensuing attention has prompted legal complaints and a whirlwind of questions for Daniels, a porn star who alleges she had sex with Trump and signed a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for the payment from Cohen, CNN.

Lawyers for Cohen and Trump have fought back against Daniels and Avenatti in turn, and Cohen in an article published last week quipped about taking "an extended vacation" with the money he anticipates getting from Daniels in court over what he says are violations of the non-disclosure agreement.

(with agency inputs)