--- title: Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen description: Stormy Daniels has expanded her lawsuit against Donald Trump to include the President's attorney Michael Cohen canonical: https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-26T22:00:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:04:10.698Z article:section: Politics og:title: Stormy Daniels Sues Donald Trump's Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation og:description: The lawsuit was filed the day after she appeared on 60 Minutes og:url: https://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe387029a5a2d01b/69892bf0656a3fc476bd3fa1/gettyimages-936613792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: 60 Minutes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stormy Daniels Sues Donald Trump's Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation twitter:description: The lawsuit was filed the day after she appeared on 60 Minutes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe387029a5a2d01b/69892bf0656a3fc476bd3fa1/gettyimages-936613792.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8b432b7e-c8d2-4c07-bbd6-79d88e71bff6&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation [Watch (HLS stream): Stormy Daniels Sues Trump Attorney Michael Cohen for Defamation](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dh5odRbm.m3u8) (1:54)  _Published 2018-03-27. Stormy Daniels has expanded her lawsuit against Donald Trump to include the President’s attorney Michael Cohen, who she alleges is defaming her by questioning the veracity of her claims on her affair with Trump._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 26, 2018 10:00 PM UTC Stormy Daniels has expanded her lawsuit against Donald Trump to include the President’s attorney Michael Cohen, who she alleges is defaming her by questioning the veracity of her claims on her affair with Trump.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Mar 26, 2018 10:00 PM UTC Stormy Daniels has expanded her lawsuit against Donald Trump to include the President’s attorney Michael Cohen, who she alleges is defaming her by questioning the veracity of her claims on her affair with Trump. The porn star’s attorney filed the expanded case in court on Monday, one day after she appeared on _60 Minutes_ in a wide-ranging interview with Anderson Cooper. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has alleged that she had an affair with President Trump in 2006, and sued President Trump earlier this month, arguing that a non-disclosure agreement she had signed before the election was invalid because Trump never signed it. In the expanded lawsuit, she says Cohen defamed her by calling her a liar for her statements about the affair, and that he and Trump “aggressively sought to silence her” to ensure he could win the election – knowingly violating campaign finance laws in the process. In 2016, Cohen wired $130,000 from a bank account linked to company called Essential Consultants LLC, which the attorney had set up in Delaware a month before the presidential election. Cohen subsequently said in a statement last month that he had paid the money out of his own pocket, in response to a complaint from the non-partisan watchdog group Common Cause, alleging that the [payment was illegal](http://fortune.com/2018/01/22/trump-campaign-stormy-daniels-watchdog-group/) and a campaign finance violation. “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump,” Cohen said in the statement. Daniels is alleging that statement is defamatory, claiming it is false and Mr. Cohen knew that. “Both on its face, and because of the facts and circumstances known to persons who read or heard the statement, it was reasonably understood Mr. Cohen meant to convey that Ms. Clifford is a liar, someone who should not be trusted, and that her claims about her relationship with Mr. Trump is “something \[that\] isn’t true.” Mr. Cohen’s statement exposed Mr. Clifford to hatred, contempt, ridicule, and shame, and discouraged others from associating or dealing with her,” [the lawsuit states.](///Users/aabramson1271/Downloads/14%20-%20FIRST%20AMENDED%20COMPLAINT%20-%20Stephanie%20Clifford%20v.%20Donald%20J.%20Trump%20et%20al.pdf) Neither Cohen nor his attorney immediately responded to request for comment. White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah told reporters Monday that Trump has consistently denied the claims and that the White House did not violate any campaign finance laws. ## Transcript [00:00] You have amended the lawsuit to now include Michael [00:02] Cowen. Previously, it was the LLC he had set up and it was [00:05] also President Trump. Why amend it now to include [00:07] Michael Cowen and what's the acquisition of defamation? [00:11] Well, Anderson, what we have done is, we have brought in [00:14] Michael Cowen individually. Previously, it was the limited [00:17] liability company that he had set up strictly to facilitate the [00:20] payment. We've named Michael Cohen individually as it [00:24] relates to what we allege are defamatory statements that [00:27] he made. Mainly, he made some statements earlier this [00:30] year where by he basically said that the affair never [00:34] happened in not so many words and made my client out to [00:38] be a liar. So we're gonna test the voracity of his Statements [00:42] against those of my client. You've played the interview of [00:45] my client over the last 45 minutes or so. We think [00:49] that 90 % of America, if not more, found her very, very [00:52] credible. And Michael Cohen has a lot of explaining to do, [00:56] relating to his statements to the American people. What [00:59] does, as part of the amendment you're also asking for [01:01] monetary damages. All along, though, I thought you said [01:04] this wasn't about money, this was about validating [01:09] this NDA. Well, I think that we're gonna be able to show [01:13] that there's been some monitary damages that she's [01:15] suffered by way of his defamatory statements and, Above [01:18] all else Anderson, she wants her name cleared. She [01:22] doesn't appreciate the misstatements and the half truths [01:24] that Michael Cohen and others have spread to the [01:26] American people. She's gonna prove that what she said to [01:29] you on 60 Minutes, was a 100 % accurate and that she's [01:33] credible and we're gonna show That what she told you and [01:37] what she told the American people was the truth. And that [01:40] what Michael Cohen, the spin that he's been trying to sell [01:43] to the American people, is a bunch of rubbish. Whether it be [01:46] about my client, the $ 130, 000, the fact that Mr. Trump [01:50] supposedly knew nothing about this. It just doesn't add up. 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